Matchstick Princess
by YouNeverCanTell
Summary: AU. Aang is found a year after the comet has passed, as the Fire Nation is about to break out into civil war and the royal family is turning on itself. Princess Azula vies for power as she juggles a fake romance, a vindictive admiral, an imminent wedding, her father's paranoia, a rising Avatar and a blazing rebellion. Tyzula-centric.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi. This is my first real fic, other than a oneshot. I've been working out the plot for a long while and I have 4 chapters written. I'm writing more kinda quickly. I hope you like it. It's the product of several months of scheming.  
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><p>Katara sits around the fire, sighing. She never thought she could hate fire more. It keeps her alive through the night, but it will always leave a foul taste in her mouth. Her brother and father are rummaging around in the camp with a ragtag group of other members of the rebellion. They have been attacking supply lines, attacking soldiers, doing everything they can.<p>

Sokka went to fight in the war. Katara told him that there was no way he was going alone. They bickered for nearly an hour before the sun was close to setting and Sokka cut his losses.

"Could you take any longer?" Katara mutters as Sokka passes her with his hands full with nails to pitch tents.

"I'm not the one who was making fancy splashes all day instead of working," Sokka replies sharply and Katara takes a deep breath. He has a point. She has been more focused on trying to waterbend than she has been on work for the rebellion.

Katara is the last waterbender of her tribe. And, therefore, lacks the skills to use her bending in a real fight. She has frozen a few soldiers before, made distractions, but she only has the moves she makes up. And every day she feels more like a burden on the rebellion and she feels if she can just master waterbending, she won't just be an outspoken accessory weighing down her companions.

"We have news," Hakoda declares and Katara's ears perk up. She has found that she has been left out of the loop more often than she would like to be. "After their victory, Fire Lord Ozai is sending Princess Azula on some kind of political tour. She's vulnerable."

"Vulnerable exactly how?" Sokka raises an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure she took down Ba Sing Se herself during the comet."

"She's away from home. Travelling constantly. We have the exact order of the stops in the tour," Hakoda says and Katara narrows her eyes. "It's our best chance to strike."

"It's our best chance to strike and die," Sokka says fiercely and Katara shakes her head.

"We have to try something. If we don't try something, we'll never take them down."

And the motley crew of rebels can only agree with the outspoken sixteen year old girl.

* * *

><p>"This is all unnecessary," Azula says to her father across the dining room table. "Completely unnecessary. It isn't as if they'll stop obeying us. Especially after, what is it we did? Oh, right, won the war last year."<p>

Ozai is not convinced. Or perhaps he knows, as he examines his daughter through his glass of wine. She has not eaten her food yet, but she has massacred the meat in her long speech about how displeased she is with the arrangements.

"People like you. You're beautiful and now how to exploit people," Ozai says, shrugging. "I think you should put that to use if you want the throne. Particularly now that your brother has returned."

"Returned to prison. A prison with invisible bars. Father, I find it hard to believe that Zuko will _ever _be Fire Lord," Azula says, pushing her plate away. She has nothing resembling an appetite. "And my mystery engagement? How clever of you to not forewarn me who I'm marrying so I can't try to sabotage it."

"Azula, I accept your input when it involves placement of soldiers and words for my speeches; you're growing... indignant. You will go on tour, and you will spread a love for the Fire Nation now that we are an empire." Pause. Ozai swirls his glass around, examining it and ignoring his daughter. She masks her anger well, but he can sense it radiating from her like an icy heat. "Don't question me. I have reason for all of this."

Azula sighs, and says, "I'll be going to my room, father."

He does not protest, although he finds it rude. Azula does not usually speak to him like that; she is too afraid that he will remove the throne from her future. But he finds that he _is _softer for her, and does allow her to get away with more than he should.

Besides, she is clearly just disgruntled about being forced to do _anything_. But he reigns absolute over her life, deciding everything she does, down to how much she is allowed to sleep or do. Relinquishing control will be impossible for him, which is exactly why in the night, as Azula lies in her bed, tossing and turning, Ozai confronts two girls sitting with their legs crossed in a parlor.

The parlor is a more casual setting for what he is about to ask for. One girl seems to find it very exciting, the other is displaying no emotion in the slightest. He has done this before; distractions in order to spy, in order to keep people in line. Azula is clever, but she is just as susceptible.

They both seem reasonably eager to join Azula on the tour. But, of course, Ozai has more to be planned.

"You're going under the paperwork of bodyguards. That's what the head of the tour believes; that's what I'll tell Azula," Ozai says, examining them closely.

Mai cocks an eyebrow; Azula will never believe she needs a bodyguard. She is the most powerful firebender in history, and Mai finds it low in likelihood that Azula would _ever _need two teenage girls protecting her. Ty Lee is oblivious to the ridiculous aliases, and she seems pleased and honored for her job.

"So, we report back to you... and?" Mai asks, trying to sound polite but coming off as uncaring. It is not her fault that her parents beat her emotions out of her.

"And make sure Azula stays on task," Ozai replies, giving the girls both a glance that solidifies their loyalty.

Azula may be their friend, but they are loyal to Ozai at this point beyond her. The repercussions for losing his favor are much higher in stakes.

Ozai retires to his room, having the girls escorted out after his lengthy speech about their rules, and hopes for sleep.

He has been getting increasingly less of it since the comet.

As Mai and Ty Lee pack their bags to go on tour, Azula paces in her room. She tries to go through what her choices could possibly be. She needs to know _why _she is being displayed like a dress up doll of the Fire Nation, and she needs to know _why _her father will tell her nothing about who she is being forced to marry.

It is because he fears her, she finally decides. He thinks she plans to usurp him, in the paranoia that has set in of late. Since the comet, her father has been exposing trusted generals as standing against him, which Azula finds entirely ridiculous.

He fears Azula, doesn't he? Ozai thinks that if he does not put her on display on order her to go on a ludicrous tour of celebration and a show of good faith to the resettled colonies, she will plot against him. Azula almost laughs when she realizes it.

Then again, she supposes it was inevitable eventually. She recalls the thousand times that she, as crown princess, was forced into political events. It was not for people to genuinely hear her opinion, or for her to grow as the girl next in line to be Fire Lord; it was to show her off as her father's accessory.

And this tour is exactly that.

Azula sighs after going over it in her head endlessly and flops down on her bed. Tomorrow she will wake early, be made up to the point of a beauty queen and not a formidable princess who was vital in the assault during Sozin's Comet, and then she will take the royal procession west.

First west, then east, then into the Earth Kingdom. It will be lengthy and painful. And in the east, before she heads into the Earth Kingdom, her father promises to announce her engagement. It is elaborate, showy and exactly the kind of thing that Ozai would do to his daughter.

She is restless in the night. Finally, prying herself out of bed and deciding that sleep is pointless, she creeps down the hallway towards her brother's room. He was brought home before the assault during Sozin's Comet. Ozai may have killed his father and in succession his wife, but he would not kill his own children. Patricide is one thing; floricide simply _too _wicked.

Azula knocks on the door, wrapping one arm around herself. At first there is no sound, but finally there is motion behind the heavy and ornately carved wood. Zuko opens the door, rubbing his eyes. Azula's golden eyes linger briefly on his scar after he removes his fists from his face.

"What do you want?" Zuko sighs, leaning against the doorframe. "You've come to mock me?"

"Maybe." Azula invites herself into his bedroom. He sighs again and shuts the door behind her. "I want to discuss something with you."

"I didn't know I was promoted to your advisor," Zuko rasps and Azula glares at him. She sits down on his bed, swirling her fingers around the blankets.

"This ridiculous tour I'm going on... I want you to do something in my absence..."

Miles away, "This is good for you," Mai's father says and Mai rolls her eyes. Of course. "Bodyguard for Princess Azula is an admirable position. Would I prefer you marry a prince? Yes. But, it is impressive for your credentials."

_For his credentials_, Mai thinks, but she does not show her thoughts on her face.

"I'm only doing it because I have to," Mai responds earnestly. "I'd really rather stay in the Fire Nation to be honest."

"I know you would," mother says in an artificially high pitched voice. Mai fights the urge to roll her eyes and nearly crushes her molars from clenching her jaw so forcefully. "But you honestly need to think about your future more often."

"I know," Mai says before slipping up to her room. Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Her first job for Fire Lord Ozai was watching Zuko. And to this day, that has been what she is doing. Making sure he does not strike out. Why Ozai believes that Azula needs to be watched like that, Mai finds ridiculous. Azula is far from a threat to Ozai, although she may be a threat to everyone else.

Watching Zuko, sleeping with Zuko, realizing she has a multitude of mushy feelings for Zuko. _And _Mai knows she is being forced to pack up with Azula because she has gotten too close to Zuko. It interferes with her ability to do business properly.

Mai sighs and figures she should finish packing. None of her material items matter much to her. She has been showered with them since her youth and money has no meaning to her. Moving back to the Fire Nation after the fall of the entire region angered her father, but Mai has been pleased so far.

She looks at the letters she and Zuko have written. His are pathetic attempts to sound romantic; hers are... well, what they would be coming from her. He has been the best thing about her return before the comet. Azula's victorious power rush after consuming Ba Sing Se in bright blue was incredibly grating.

Mai cares about the princess more than she cares about most things, but Azula's ambition has been spiraling out of control recently. Ozai fears her. If Azula did not love her father, she would have usurped him after the comet.

Mai knows it.

Morning comes far too quickly. Ty Lee is peacefully sleeping when her mother all but forces her out of bed. She blinks with her round eyes and glances around, dazed and confused. Her room, pink frills and red, garnet studded vanity, and clothes on the floor, is about to be removed from her.

"Are you packed? The royal procession leaves in two hours," mother says gently, removing Ty Lee's hair from its braid. She starts to re-do her daughter's hair after combing through it with a golden brush.

Ty Lee picks at her lips, squinting at herself in the mirror. This mission excites her in a number of ways. It has been a long time since she has seen Azula. She ran away to the circus, only to come back briefly before the comet. And Azula was waiting for her. Angry beneath the surface, abandoned. But her friends were here and Ty Lee was happy.

And now she is about to go on an amazing vacation with both of them. _Plus_, bodyguard work sounds even more exciting than contortion and acrobatics. She is shaking in her seat as her mother finishes her hair, now wide awake from her rush of jitters.

"I'll miss you mom, but now I'm going to go on a fantastic adventure!" Ty Lee chirps while she gets dressed. She slings her bag over her shoulder and picks up her two extra bags.

"Have fun," mother says, the same thing she said when Ty Lee declared she was joining the circus. It is rather nice to have little parental supervision, even if Ty Lee hates being ignored.

Azula sits very still, her hair being done slowly. A tremendous amount of effort goes into making it perfect. Her eyelashes are done to the point that they are almost bigger than her eyes. She finds the eye make-up distasteful, and it stings her eyes if she blinks for too long.

"Hello, princess," a gravelly voice says behind her. Mai invites herself into the room. "Are you excited?"

Azula laughs mirthlessly as Mai smirks faintly.

"This is one of the worst days of my life," Azula sighs, examining her freshly lacquered fingernails. "I don't think I could be less pleased about something if my father revoked the throne from me."

Mai does not tell Azula that the princess is exaggerating greatly. But she settles in place and watches the absolute absurdity that is seven servants readying one girl. One girl who looks like she would bite off one of their fingers if they mess up.

"If you stab me with that pin again, I will put it right through your eye," Azula says sharply, bringing the woman adjusting the top of her shirt to nearly the point of tears. Mai chuckles in response.

Azula gives more orders as Mai finds herself amused. Ty Lee arrives like a tornado and Azula slips out of the room before she has to deal with her. Mai narrows her eyes at it; she finds herself curious about Azula's sudden discomfort about being around Ty Lee. Likely she's pissed about the circus, or maybe something else. Reading people is Azula's thing, not Mai's.

"You should say goodbye to Zuko," Ty Lee says after listing everything she has packed in her bags, all of which seems frivolous. "You won't be back for a long time."

"It's not like we're together anymore. It was all a sham that the Fire Lord put me up to," Mai says, rubbing her temples. She does not want to face Zuko today. Or any day for that matter.

"I still think you should say goodbye," Ty Lee replies in a sing-song tone and Mai groans. She puts her foot down and Ty Lee feels Mai will regret it for a long time to come.

"Not happening," Mai replies and Ty Lee frowns for a flicker of a second.

"Well, we should probably get going." Ty Lee grabs her bags again, having an easy time carrying them despite their weight. Mai rolls her eyes and follows.

* * *

><p>"That was a good speech," Ty Lee comments brightly to Azula. The princess shrugs.<p>

"I've done better," she says, standing at the precipice of their journey. They are on the other side of the Caldera, soldiers set up, an endless entourage.

"We're not _walking _to the other side of the country, are we?" Mai catches up to them after being locked in an uncomfortable conversation with Zhao.

Admiral Zhao. Who is going to be overseeing the protection of Princess Azula, and most likely is _also _a spy for Fire Lord Ozai. He simply cannot get enough spies.

"Of course not. Well... I'm not at least," is Azula's reply with a small smirk.

Zhao walks forward, passing Mai who feels a shiver being near him. He just seems _creepy _to her. Ty Lee finds him "icky".

"These are your bodyguards. Apparently, they're... competent," Zhao says, introducing people Azula has known since she was seven years old to her as if it is a brand new development. Azula examines him in a way that would intimidate most humans, but he seems to think he can stand up to her. That displeases the princess greatly.

"I don't consider them my bodyguards," Azula sighs, examining her fingernails pointedly as she speaks. "You think I need bodyguards? I took out the entire army surrounding Ba Sing Se singlehandedly. This is clearly a ploy by my father to keep me in check."

"You are the Fire Lord's young daughter, regardless of your bending," Zhao says and Mai thinks the man is going to get electrocuted to death. But Azula simply narrows her eyes.

"I have entirely no need for a bodyguard. This tour is a joke. This engagement is a sham. And you... stay out of my way."

Zhao grits his teeth.


	2. Chapter 2

**The response to the first chapter was amazing! I'm glad people like this and want to read it. I'll try to update fast.**

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><p>Katara wakes up and it takes her a moment to realize where she is. She never got used to being away from the ice and snow. And although half of the trees are blackened or harvested, she finds the foliage incredibly impressive.<p>

"Katara, I want to talk to you," Sokka says and Katara's heart jumps into her throat. It is not the kind of thing Sokka says; he usually just makes sarcastic comments in passing. "We've been discussing plans."

"The plans to jump the royal procession?" Katara sits straight up, suddenly very awake.

"The plan to infiltrate the Fire Nation."

"That's a bit of a leap from an attack on the princess," Katara says softly, eyebrows shooting up. Sometimes she does not know what gets into these people. She supposes their hope is good, but sometimes it can lead to overconfidence, which leads to bloodshed.

"We've been thinking it through. Come on; you're involved."

It sounds incredibly ominous.

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><p>"This is gross," Mai complains, looking at the town they're stopping in. It does not even count as a town; it is more of a grungy stop off of the main road. A long path cuts through the entire Fire Nation, leading from Caldera to the westernmost city. And it is that road that they will follow for this tour that Mai completely agrees with Azula about being <em>pointless<em>.

"It's not awful," Ty Lee offers, pointedly helping Azula out of her palanquin. They glance at each other with darting eyes as their fingertips linger for too long. Mai makes mental note to get to the bottom of whatever it is that is making them _more _awkward.

"It's pretty awful," Azula declares and neither Mai or Ty Lee voice another opinion. "So, _bodyguards_, let's find our room."

Mai rolls her eyes but no one sees it, and Azula guides her friends to the inn. The town consists of a small market, a pointless shop for odds and ends, two decrepit houses and an inn. The inn seems to be in the best shape, clearly frequently used. Why people would want to go on lengthy trips through the boring Fire Nation, Mai has no idea.

Azula reaches the front door and is blocked by Admiral Zhao. She thought she told him to stay out of her way.

"I'll escort you. You're three young girls and shouldn't be walking into these places on your own. You never know what can happen outside of the city," he says slowly, examining the three of them. Mai swallows, Ty Lee squints at him and Azula sighs with pointed regality.

"Fine, fine, have it your way," Azula begrudgingly agrees, making a point to display that she is in control. It entirely goes over Zhao's head, who seems quite pleased with his position of escorting the Fire Lord's daughter through her propaganda tour.

They are led, all three displeased, by Zhao into the inn. It is trying too hard to be quaint and failing at it. Azula sticks her nose up but her friends do not seem to care. Zhao speaks to the woman at the desk, commanding, rude. He will not go far outside of military; he speaks like a conceited general, not a representative of the Fire Nation.

Azula finds her way to her room and drags her friends inside without another word to her _escort_. She never thought she could despise someone so much. It is the way he embodies the opposite of her firebending, perhaps. You can tell a lot about a bender when you have enough knowledge, and Zhao is the worst kind of firebender.

No control. None at all. But he wants control.

Just like father cannot handle power. Not at all. But he wants power.

Enough to destroy his family for it.

Azula would not do that. Probably. But that is what Ozai is so afraid of. That his daughter could grow up to be _just like him_.

"You look pretty spacey," Ty Lee remarks loudly, tearing Azula from her thoughts violently. Azula purses her lips and does not answer. Mai lies down on the creaky bed in the nicest room of the inn and exhales forcefully.

"This is the worst vacation ever," Mai complains, plucking up parts of the knit blankets and playing with them in her nimble fingers, honed by arrows and blades.

"I agree entirely," Azula replies, walking to the window and staring out. Nothingness for miles. Just the road and a single sign to the next city; her second appearance will be there, and it will kick off her journey to the west.

Mai glances at Ty Lee's discomfort as she studies Azula. Something has definitely happened between them behind Azula being so pissed about the whole circus thing. But Azula's abandonment issues are not shocking news. There is definitely something more lingering beneath the surface. And Mai just wants to dig it up and pry it apart.

"I suppose we should _sleep _or something. Not that we could in this disgusting place. The Earth Kingdom was _almost _nicer. Given, it looked much better on fire," Azula says with a careless shrug. Mai raises her eyebrows at the tossing around of genocide. But she supposes she should be used to it by now. Azula revels in her success during the comet and, as disgusting as it is, Mai supposes she has earned it.

"Azula, you should be nicer to Admiral Zhao," Ty Lee says and Mai and Azula are both stunned. They put down their respective activities and simply stare. "Just think about his life right now. He's a decorated Admiral who is currently babysitting you. That's his job. Not... Admiral stuff. He's essentially a nanny now."

Azula narrows her eyes; Mai laughs.

"You can't tell me what to do," Azula says, gritting her teeth. "You're on this trip to _serve _me not to─"

"Azula, please just take a joke," Mai sighs and Azula's eyes flash like a golden blade in the sun. "We know we're your slaves for eternity because we sat next to you at lunch during school, but you don't have to rub it in all the time."

Azula hesitates, briefly offended. But she laughs momentarily. For a flicker of a second Ty Lee's heart hurts; they will always be closer, won't they? Mai can say what she wants. Ty Lee is just going to be used and silenced.

She decides to duck out of the room and pointedly write her report to Fire Lord Ozai.

Being around Azula is getting too difficult, and the tour has barely begun.

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><p>Azula gives her first speech of the tour. It is bright, brilliant and bold. People watch with bright eyes, breathless. She is the closest thing the Fire Nation has to a celebrity and that is evident. The city has a stage meant for executions; they are stereotypically popular. But now it is decorated for the guest speaker, who extends the hand of good will from Fire Lord Ozai.<p>

"Freedom dies if you do not use it," Azula opens with. Utter silence at her words. "That's something I personally have learned over the years. I think as a Nation we want to achieve freedom in solidarity. The military in the Earth Kingdom was broken into rigid ranks and squabbling leaders of towns who offered soldiers. They had no aims as a nation as a whole. They were not a Kingdom. They were running on archaic anarchy and brute violence."

Azula revels in the moment. The people feed off of her words. Mostly because she tells them what they want to hear. As she stands in a glorious ruby dress that is incredibly impractical if someone were to attempt to assassinate her right now, made-up like her father's lovely doll to plaster walls with the image of, she feels powerful.

Soon that power will be gone.

"We have tradition, pride, a status quo, yes. But the generals told the children they sent on the front lines with little training, only to die in vain, told them that the Fire Nation was some kind of totalitarian regime. That is propaganda and an absolute lie. We believe in freedom. Freedom from the bonds of the old ways. We incite industry. And a man can be born on a dirt farm and wind up in a mansion in Caldera mere years later. We incite freedom."

Pause. It is the perfect moment for a pause. She can almost _feel _the unbridled nationalism. It is cute from people who have no idea how corrupt and sick the nation is at its core. They only see the propaganda, not what Azula sees in war rooms.

"The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when all hope of a better life for the people has died. That hope died long ago in the Earth Kingdom. They were a diseased plant that would spread its illness if we allowed it to. And, so, to ensure that our people would remain free, so we would not let our hope die, we annihilated them. Like burning off the dead leaves on a plant to keep it from dying as a whole."

Metaphors, metaphors. She feels quite clever during her next pause. Someone could hear a pin drop across town. It is fairly fun.

"Great responsibility was put upon us as a nation by my great grandfather. And in the comet named for him, we took responsibility and stomped out a totalitarian regime that threatened our freedom. I watched Ba Sing Se crumble myself." Pause. "I burned off the diseased branches on the tree of the Fire Nation Empire."

Azula waits. Breathlessness from the crowd.

"If we falter in our leadership in this coming times as we build a new life from the ash of the comet, we may endanger the peace of our world and will surely destroy the welfare of our nation."

Azula stops again. She glances between the peasants who believe only what comes from her forked tongue.

"That is all I need you to know. My father and I stand with you, the people of our nation, regardless of your military rank or societal status. And we offer you freedom. Thank you."

The applause is thunderous. Azula has to bite the inside of her lip to keep from smirking. It went over even better than she intended it to, and she intended for it to be powerful.

Azula slips away from the stage, seized by her 'bodyguards' at each side. They make it to the courthouse by the executioner's stage. It is deserted for the purpose of briefly housing the princess.

"That was pretty amazing," Ty Lee says, batting her eyes blithely. Azula shrugs. "Oh, don't say you've done better. It was _really _amazing. Did you write that yourself?"

"Of course," Azula says earnestly. "I wouldn't just recite a script some old man handed me, would I?"

And then there is a loud crash. Azula's neck snaps up as she sees what has happened; a rock smashed through the windows of the courthouse. And suddenly, men in masks are in flight directly at Azula. Such a poor wardrobe choice, is all Azula can fathom as a series of knives collide with the neck of one of the men.

She tears from her dress as a jet of flame comes at her. With one finger she blocks it, dancing out of the expensive fabric. The firebender tries again but Ty Lee stops him; he falls to the ground, useless.

A rebellion Azula knew little about; why this never was spoken of to her by her father is baffling. With a few carefully timed blue explosions, two of the assailants fall dead and charred. Perhaps the rebellion is why Ozai is so paranoid of Azula. It would explain a good deal of him sending her on a propaganda tour and forcibly engaging her for marriage.

Mai slices out the throat of one, Ty Lee snaps the neck of a woman, and Azula finishes the last with a bolt of lightning. Azula walks to the man she just slew and lifts the mask from his face. Indistinguishable from anyone else in the homogenous Fire Nation. So they are her people. So they are.

"We're pretty good bodyguards, Mai!" Ty Lee exclaims as Azula is contemplating why she has never heard of rebellion before. "Oh, Azula, you... you aren't wearing..."

"I'm mostly dressed," Azula snarls and Ty Lee recoils with one finger still pointing at Azula's chest.

"You're mostly in your underwear," Mai corrects calmly and Azula rolls her eyes.

"I mostly just saved our lives." It is not necessarily true, but no one corrects her. Mai and Ty Lee had just as much to do with defeating the abrupt invaders, but arguing with the princess is ill advised.

Zhao and the nameless soldiers walk in belatedly. They were dealing with the crowds, handling the _fans_, while Azula was assaulted by insurgents.

"Would you care to explain to me why I was told nothing about insurgents in the _Fire Nation_?" Azula demands icily, giving Zhao a glare worthy of her father. She learned many of her coercive mannerisms from him, and they never fail him.

Zhao hesitates. "Would you care to explain to me why you're undressed where anyone could see you? You have standards to uphold."

"I was just almost murdered. Do you notice the bodies around you?" Azula gestures at corpses and a blood splattered floor. Zhao did notice it when he came in, but he was quickly distracted by the princess's appearance. "Tell me why I wasn't told about a _rebellion_."

"The rebellion isn't important. It's not strong enough to cause real damage," Zhao explains, rehearsed words forced into his mouth to be regurgitated. Azula purses her red lips. "But clearly they stepped out of line by attacking you. Apparently your bodyguards _are _competent. I'm surprised."

Mai snorts derisively and Zhao ignores her.

"I expect a report about them before my next appearance. This clearly isn't the last of whatever they have planned."

Their masks are of Fire Nation spirits. Why would people who loved their Nation attack _Azula_? She is the ideal of the Fire Nation. The idea of rebellion within her country and not just the Earth Kingdom concerns the princess, but she looks completely collected as Ty Lee finds her clothes and the bodies are carried out by soldiers.

Azula blushes uncomfortably as Ty Lee's hands brush against her bare abdomen when she hands Azula the clothes from the stylists of the royal procession. Ty Lee swallows, eyes wide momentarily as she realizes the flush on Azula's cheeks.

Sexual. Too sexual.

_"I invited you into my bed, not my heart. If you wanted some incredible _romance _perhaps you shouldn't have run off to the circus. You never would have seen me again if it weren't for the comet," Azula says bitterly, tying the strings on the back of her bra. "So don't act like we're dating."_

_ Ty Lee recoils, pulling blankets over her naked form like a child afraid of monsters in the night._

"We should get moving before we're... interrupted again," Zhao says as soon as Azula is dressed. The watering down of Zhao's words comes from political training. It is almost as sickening as Azula's. He seems twisted but she is far more practiced at putting up a variety of facades.

Ty Lee moves to help Mai clean the blood off her body, although it is unnecessary. She seems to just think that it will prove she isn't just helping Azula. That they are a trio.

And after a good speech and an intriguing fight in the middle of a small city, the royal procession moves on without further hindrance.

* * *

><p>It's dark, cold, and rainy tonight in the small city where Azula first spoke. These are exactly three states of weather Azula despises. The window is open and she does not have the will in her to get up and close it, so frigid rain drips onto the scratched wooden floors of the inn. She feels her head surging with pain.<p>

"What's wrong?" a voice whispers beside her, high and overly warm. Much warmer than the cold night.

"I have a headache. Migraine. It isn't important," Azula replies with a pointed sigh. She cannot let on her discomfort, nor her anxiety about whatever it is her father has planned for her.

The silence is deafening until a hand touches hers. Light, smooth fingers brush across Azula's palm and she swallows. This cannot happen; this is not allowed to happen.

"I'm not being frisky. I'm fixing your headache," Ty Lee says softly, blushing when she notices Azula's expression. She sets the back of Azula's hand on her abdomen, her skin bare and heated from the thick down blankets.

And with a single motion, Ty Lee presses down in the inside of Azula's palm with her thumb. It hurts for a flicker of a second, but then all Azula can feel is relief of her headache. Bliss. Hm.

"That's impressive," Azula says, smirking faintly. "No more headache."

"Pressure points aren't just for, uh, soldier stuff," Ty Lee chirps before feeling awkward.

Her stomach is twisting and churning as she feels the discomfort between she and Azula. Their reunion when Ty Lee returned from the circus was... unpleasant. But pleasant at the same time. Indescribable feelings exist between them and Azula does a far better job at suppressing them than Ty Lee does.

"I'll keep that in mind," Azula replies quietly before turning on her side. Her breath is on Ty Lee's neck and it makes the acrobat break out in goosebumps. "Shut the window, will you?"

Ty Lee exhales a sigh of relief as if she thought Azula would say something more sinister. But Ty Lee nods and leaps out of the bed gracefully, walking to the window and sealing it shut. The glass and wood creak and Mai stirs in her deep slumber.

Azula closes her eyes and realizes sleep will never come. Ty Lee sits at the end of the bed and fidgets.

If she could mend the rift between she and Azula...

And somehow break the sexual tension...

She would be feeling significantly more optimistic about this propaganda tour.


	3. Chapter 3

**I changed the summary to better reflect the full plot. And the title. Sorry for any confusion or anything. This is going to be about 45 chapters, and the plot doesn't quite take off until the end of next chapter. Right now it's kind of in the exposition phase. The Katara subplot is going to combine with the main plot eventually. I worry it stands out too much. This is very strongly Azula-centric and Tyzula-centric once I get to Aang being found and set up Azula's plot and shift to almost entirely her POV. But, uh, exposition phase. I hope it's not too slow or anything.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Katara sits around the fire. They live in these woods like savages. It disturbs her that she had to leave her frosty home and live without footprints. But stopping the Fire Nation means everything to her. She is waiting for them to tell her exactly what they mean by <em>infiltrate the Fire Nation<em>.

"We'll make our first stop back at the South Pole. It's more strategic to approach the Fire Nation from there, as their ships have less of a patrol in that direction. We were no threat to them, none at all," Hakoda explains as Katara toys with the hem of her blue, singed skirt.

It got the burns in a fight she found herself in. Being part of the rebellion involves more than Katara imagined it would be. It involves the scent of charred flesh and the feeling of helplessness. They may come across one or two rebels per several miles, but the oceans of Fire Nation soldiers are infinite.

"But what about the princess?" Katara demands. "She'll be done with her tour by the time we're ready to get there."

"We sent our friends from the other encampment to make an attempt on her life."

"They'll die," Katara murmurs.

Hakoda knows that, but he does not acknowledge his daughter's lament for their lives.

"They said that we had to be prepared to take it up another step. If we're aiming high now, we're aiming high now. The Fire Nation is on the brink of a civil war, according to all of our informants. We need to be there now, before the rebels are taken out," Hakoda says and Katara knows they are obsessed with the Fire Nation collapsing on itself.

Half of what she hears about is how the Fire Nation is about to have a civil war. But Katara does not think it will come to pass. Or maybe, she sometimes allows herself to hope, they are violent enough that they need war to survive as a country, even if it is a war within their own borders.

And so Katara and the gang of rebels with her under their wing set out for the Southern Water Tribe. It is a three week journey and Katara spends the entire time practicing. Her waterbending is still weak and untrained, but she puts everything into it and manages to summon several waves.

When she sets foot on snow, her body is filled with powerful relief. She runs across it, reveling in the cold wind that flushes her cheeks. She hugs her Gran-Gran first and then looks around at the tribe. But she finds them lacking; people are missing.

"Did more people join the rebellion?" Katara asks her grandmother, studying her closely. But her expression reads something else entirely. Katara's stomach turns to ice.

"The Fire Nation raided us again," is all Gran-Gran says and Katara asks no more.

Katara tries to breathe and feels herself choking slightly. Maybe they could have saved their neighbors if they had not been in the Earth Kingdom blowing up supply lines and trying to help the ragged rebels of another nation. Katara bitterly slips into her house, drawing her knees to her chest and trying not to cry.

* * *

><p>Three weeks have passed in Azula's propaganda tour without event. This is the only good news that has crossed Ozai's desk since she left. The revolts are getting more and more violent, the discontent poisoning the air. Even Caldera hosts a few brave people in protest, but they are strung up faster than a fire starts on dry leaves.<p>

Azula was meant to abet this. To cry out speeches that would give goosebumps to crowds and reinvigorate that nationalism that Sozin sparked. But the comet named from him was the undoing of his own country. The people are angry, not about violence, or about the Earth Kingdom, but the influx of refugees, the difference in wealth of those who profited from now dead colonies... it leaves poverty in which anger at your own nation can fester.

Zuko is carrying out what Azula requested as Ozai is holding meetings of war about his own people fighting against him. Prince Zuko is doing everything in his power to find out who Azula is meant to be engaged to. It is to silence her, Zuko knows, to bury her in a wedding dress.

As Zuko interrogates anyone with power who crosses his path, all of them with no answer, Azula reaches the final city. Upon a grandstand, she readies for another speech.

"My father supports you, because he loves you. He understands you and he stands in solidarity with you," Azula finishes with fervor, though she does not believe the words she has said. She has seen the Fire Nation start to unravel. She has seen that her father is sinking further and further into paranoia of some kind of mutiny.

As Azula says her final word, the stage bursts into flames. She quenches it as she leaps from it, her dress burning. She stifles it, leaving singed shreds of fabric exposing her knees. It has broken out into a _riot_. And not of pleasure from her speech.

Mai seizes her, running with their arms interlinked. It might as well be a battle in the streets, soldiers against a populace who seem to be displeased with Azula's speech about her father being one of the people he governs. Ty Lee is directly behind them, looking for somewhere to hide.

They dive into the open door of a shop that seems out of the way of most of the fire. Azula gasps for breath, pressing her back against the wall. Mai shuts the door and seizes a chair, pushing it under the doorknob.

"Are you alive, princess?" Ty Lee asks, catching her breath at last.

"No, I'm a ghost," Azula replies sharply as she hesitantly peeks out of the window. The fight is escalating. "Nice bodyguard work."

They certainly have proven to fit their cover story well. The streets have erupted and Mai watches hesitantly. This cannot be a good sign.

Azula wanders through the shop as Mai and Ty Lee have their eyes glued to the fight going on outside. The citizens of the city are doing poorly against the well trained soldiers. So many corpses. It is almost like an Earth Kingdom town that has just been invaded, but the carnage is more sick.

Princess Azula had no idea that her nation was on the brink of civil war. It was unwise of father to send her out where she could discover that. She lived behind the walls of the palace, protected from what was out here. And as she digs through the shop, looking for clues, she thinks about how she could exploit what she has just learned about the populace.

She finds it shoved in a drawer. A flier written with information about the revolt and the plans for it. Not strategically burned, just hidden away. Azula's face is drawn on it. But there is no mention of killing her in the letter, only of making a statement that could not be ignored.

Then again, the death of the crown princess would be a statement that could not be ignored.

Zuko hears of the revolt and that Azula was safe and on her way home from the coast. There would be no more stops. She came too close to being killed. A stage erupted in fire beneath her and that was enough to scare Ozai into reeling her back in.

"You sent Azula away because you're afraid of her. You can't just kill her off like the other people who oppose you," Zuko says slowly, frustrated that he failed to learn anything new about Ozai's plans for his daughter today. He thought he had a lead but he did not. Pause. Ozai grits his teeth and pretends not to hear his son. "Like your father. Is killing your own child a little harder than that?"

"You don't know what you're talking about." Ozai does not shout or reply in rage. He simply sips his wine and eats his dinner as if Zuko is not trying to pry him apart.

"You're going to marry her off to someone who can watch her. And make sure she doesn't wind up _too much _like her father," Zuko says and Ozai gives him a look that should have been enough to silence him. "Why are you so afraid of her? Shouldn't you be more worried about the angry peasants, and not Azula, who knows very well she'll get the throne handed to her if she just keeps out of your way?"

Ozai examines Zuko. "You ask too many questions for an exile."

"At least exiles aren't dead."

They eat in silence after that comment. Zuko has no more to say and Ozai has no desire to listen to any more.

Azula lies in the hotel between her two friends. The window is open and the moon and starlight pours in unadulterated. She looks at the girl beside her, the light making patterns of chiaroscuro on her back.

She sleeps peacefully as Azula runs one long fingernail along her half bare back. Ty Lee does not move, or even stir in her sleep. Azula is met by visions of them sleeping together before Azula broke it off. It was going too far. They were in too deep. Azula knew the only way it could remain as just something physical and not emotional was to stop it altogether.

Azula kisses her neck and leaves an invisible mark. That makes Ty Lee move. Her eyes flutter open as Azula is pulling away from her. The princess contemplates pretending to be asleep, but she decides against it.

"Do you need something, princess?" Ty Lee asks sweetly, as if nothing had ever happened between them. And now Azula would be engaged as soon as they reached Caldera. Their affair would be a regrettable few months in the afterglow of victory from the comet.

_"Are we alone?" Azula murmurs, walking to Ty Lee sitting on the sofa. _

_ "I think so," Ty Lee replies, blinking twice. She gazed at Azula with eyes that Azula knew. Lustful eyes that, instead of repulsing Azula, drew her closer and closer._

_ "How fortunate." Azula sits down on the coffee table across from Ty Lee. "Maybe you're my reward for defeating the Earth Kingdom."_

_ Ty Lee blushes. She likes the idea more than she should admit. Given, referring to her as a reward is not the most romantic pick up line, but what happens next, she allows with open arms._

_ It is not perfect. But it is the start of something different._

_ Ty Lee likes it._

_ It intimidates Azula. She is not used to uncontrolled desires._

"I don't need anything. I just can't sleep," Azula murmurs, lying down and closing her eyes.

Ty Lee studies her for a little too long.

It is a shame that their relationship is over.

* * *

><p>Katara paddles through the water with Sokka. She plays with the water as he stops to figure out what direction they should turn in.<p>

"You need to be ready to infiltrate the Fire Nation. Stop playing with water," Sokka says, looking annoyed. Katara examines her orb of water and slowly lets it drop. "They're sending us. I'm not going to let something terrible happen to you because you aren't ready."

"You don't have to be so _patriarchal_," Katara snarls, bristling at his attempt to protect her. Everyone tries to protect her, and that only makes people wind up dead. Katara does not need to be protected, even if she is only sixteen. "I can take care of myself."

"You've really not proven that in the past," Sokka says, turning the wrong way. Katara sighs. He has no sense of direction at all, and now their fishing boat is taking a turn into hazardous waters. Waters they have not been in before.

Katara tries to help him keep control of the boat as they veer into a field of icebergs.

* * *

><p>Azula is travelling when the assassination is attempted. These people are not the angry people of the Fire Nation who want justice or war. They are not Fire Nation at all. Nor escaped slaves or prisoners. Azula's gut clenches as she examines their corpses.<p>

"How many times have I almost died now, Admiral Zhao?" Azula asks, touching one of the bodies with the toe of her shoe.

"Four, princess," Zhao says begrudgingly. "We couldn't have anticipated it."

"Mhm. So how did these Earth Kingdom peasants wind up in my country? And why exactly did they just attempt to kill us? I mean, the rebels are one thing. At least they were born here or are legally in the Fire Nation. How exactly can our Nation's security explain this?" Azula examines Zhao with a dissatisfied expression.

"It's not impossible for the militia members from the Earth Kingdom to get here with all of the Fire Nation refugees. It won't happen again, I'm sure," Admiral Zhao says confidently and Azula purses her lips.

No. It won't happen again. As soon as Azula crosses through the doors of the palace, she is dissecting all that has come to pass.

This propaganda tour has been most enlightening.

The assassins had Water Tribe weapons. Strange. So Azula is threatened by two fronts: her enemies in the Earth Kingdom and her own subjects.

A nation on the brink.

Azula walks along the path that leads from the road as the procession deals with damages from the skirmish with rebels. It leads to a small, babbling brook and beautiful, mossy trees. She saw, beyond these beautiful outskirts of Caldera, land that was destroyed. Overly harvested, forests replaced with factories. Azula saw that in the Earth Kingdom, not in her own country.

It is not hard to figure out why people may oppose Ozai. They might as well be Earth Kingdom slaves for the way they are treated in their own country. Azula supposes it will not matter to her once she has the throne, or even once she is home and no longer has to look at the grotesque, ravaged towns and impoverished people.

"You look distracted," Ty Lee asks, approaching her. Azula tries not to look at her, and instead to study the water.

"I think I've learned more than I needed to know," Azula sighs, watching the water flow. It is crystalline clear, unlike the poisoned streams Azula had come across. "The nation is in trouble. Maybe we needed the war to keep people in check."

"Maybe?" Ty Lee rubs her neck. She is not exactly an expert in politics. That has always been the interest of Mai and Azula, not her.

"I don't know if this works for or against me. My father sent me away because he was afraid I would steal the country from me." Azula glances at Zhao, who is watching her from afar. She trusts him less and less every day, and she did not trust him much in the first place.

"But you don't want to, do you?" Ty Lee asks feebly, watching Azula walk to her. Azula lingers in front of Ty Lee, very close. She touches her arm and Ty Lee tries to fight against the wave of goosebumps.

Azula leans in close, her lips nearly against Ty Lee's neck.

"I think I want to take the country," she whispers and Ty Lee swallows. This, she may leave out of her report to Fire Lord Ozai. "Perhaps my father's influence over the people has run dry."

Azula walks past Ty Lee, her eyes flickering up to face Admiral Zhao. He does not suspect.

She walks back towards the royal procession as Ty Lee swallows and tries to forget what she was just told.

* * *

><p>Katara and Sokka are shipwrecked. Sokka looks at the boat floating away from them and groans loudly.<p>

"See what your arguing did?" Sokka snaps and Katara clears her throat.

"_My _arguing? You're the one who thinks you're so tough just because you joined the rebellion. It doesn't make you any better than anyone else. Our tribe is dying out because we abandoned them and here you are, going on about how we're going to infiltrate the Fire Nation. The rebellion is a waste of time." Katara strikes a vicious blow out in the middle of nowhere. One iceberg cracks and Sokka has to steady himself for the wave. Katara points to the next one. "I am just about _done _with your delusions of grandeur."

When this iceberg cracks, it does not simply crumble. No... it does something else entirely.

* * *

><p>By the time Azula reaches Caldera, something is stirring towards the east. She arrives to the love of the people and realizes she was greeted the same way even in places that were bubbles of tension about to pop violently. Nothing looks the same to her golden eyes after what she saw during her propaganda tour.<p>

She reaches the palace without being swarmed too much but the loving people. Zuko is waiting for her, not father or anyone else. Mai looks at him and then averts her eyes. The tension between them is almost as thick as the tension between the citizens of the Fire Nation and their Fire Lord.

Azula supposes her tension with Ty Lee is not any better, but she likes to think of herself as a few notches above Zuko and Mai.

"I did what you asked," Zuko says and Azula smirks faintly. It is true. The information finally made its way into Zuko's hands.

And Azula is ready to connive her way out of the prison father has made for her.


	4. Chapter 4

Katara never expected to see an Air Temple. She saw great sights in the Earth Kingdom, most notably buildings that don't melt. The carnage in the Earth Kingdom was disgusting and Katara imagined the Air Temples would be equally scorched and muddied with death. Yet, time has served the place well. The marks of the Fire Nation have almost entirely faded.

Sokka is complaining, as usual. And Aang is excited, which Katara loves. What she saw two days ago terrified her, but she has grown fairly sweet on Aang.

His compassion and ability to see the best in people are personality traits that no longer exist in a world after Sozin's Comet. The moment that beautiful light streaked across the sky, hope died and the ground was permanently scorched.

"So, Aang," Sokka says as they walk up _endless _stairs, "what was that whole outburst?"

_Katara watches as two ships are sheared in half by the power of water._

_ "The strength of water can sink a man," is an old saying in the Water Tribe. It never made sense to Katara until she saw Aang's eyes and tattoos glow blue and a tsunami rise at his command._

_ Hakoda, Bato and the other rebels look on in shock as they battle on their own boarded vessel. Katara ceases struggling against the soldiers fighting her. And they stop trying to drag her towards their own ship. _

_ The ships were attracted and Hakoda decided to make the best of it by using this opportunity to steal one for the infiltration. But while it was too much, right now, Aang proves to be the most vital weapon the rebels could ever have._

_ He sinks into the water and rises again with the help of his Sky Bison._

"I don't know," Aang says calmly, shrugging. Then he frowns for a flicker of a second. Katara has only seen that expression on Aang's face when she showed him the Fire Nation ship and explained what happened during the comet.

Katara feels a twisting sensation in her gut as they come closer to the Southern Air Temple. Aang has not fully accepted that his people died one hundred years ago. Just like seventy years ago, Katara's people were killed and stolen. She wishes she could express that to him, wishes she could express what she saw in the Earth Kingdom. Bodies. Charred bodies in open graves.

_"I never wanted to be the Avatar," Aang says as he starts to walk away. "I can't help you."_

_ He cannot help after he failed everyone. The world's balance is forever tipped and he knows it is his fault. Katara follows him even though he plans to leave before the rebels ask him to help them. Why would Aang be able to do it? He does not know the first thing about being the Avatar, and he does not know any elements except for airbending._

_ "Let's run together, then. Let's go to the North Pole. I've heard it wasn't defeated during the comet. But our communication was broken off even when we were in the Earth Kingdom." The dream of the North Pole is a foolish legend people cling onto because they fear their culture will die out forever. "Please. You don't have to infiltrate the Fire Nation like Sokka keeps going on about. Let's run together."_

_ She hesitates. Aang stops walking, but he does not turn to face her._

_ "Please take me with you. I can't be here anymore." Katara's voice never sounded broken to Aang before, but right now it does._

_ "Okay," Aang says earnestly. She is the only person here who has treated him as a person and not a valuable resource._

They reach the upper levels of the Air Temple and Katara and Sokka try to distract Aang futilely.

But it cannot be a secret forever.

* * *

><p>In the Fire Nation, Azula is grateful that her brother did as she asked despite their messy history. The loathing between them fades upon occasion as they are older, more mature, and it is set in stone that Azula will rule the nation. Rivalry dies hard, however. But for now, they are best friends, because Zuko has information that Azula desperately needs.<p>

"You found out about my engagement?" Azula asks slowly and smoothly, shutting herself in her brother's room.

"You're going to be angry," Zuko replies, eyeing Azula closely as if she will bite him. "Father plans it to silence you."

"I'm aware. But one hand may be given in marriage, but the other is prepared to strike him down with a bolt of lightning," Azula says and Zuko gulps. He never imagined Azula talking like that. She is the opposite of treasonous, but here she is openly talking about killing their own father.

But Azula couldn't hurt him. She knows it; Zuko knows it. But in her anger, she believes she is capable of killing anything that breathes.

"There's a reason father sent Admiral Zhao as your... escort?"

"Babysitter," Azula corrects, before Zuko's words sink in. Her eyes flash, because she does not want to hear what comes next.

"I think you can figure out where I'm going with this." Zuko does not want to break it to her in clear terms. She looks like an angry dragon, except slightly more terrifying.

"It's okay," Azula says, her voice slightly constricted by emotion. "It's okay. Because I'm going to find my way out of this. If there's anything I'm good at, it's finding a loophole. It's conniving. It's okay. It's going to be okay."

She seems incapable of breathing and Zuko wonders if he should do something to help her. He simply looks at her with his lips slightly parted as she coughs twice and straightens her back. Her cheeks are flushed, something Zuko has never seen on Azula. She controls herself and her emotions to the point where Zuko thinks she might just combust someday.

Azula walks into the hall and Zuko hesitantly follows her. There is commotion in the palace, and Azula wonders if it is for her or for something else.

"Oh wonderful, perhaps the Fire Sages are here to marry me before I can think of something," Azula sighs as she sees the men walk into the palace. There is urgency about them beyond the matter of a royal wedding.

Azula narrows her eyes and waits a few heartbeats before following them. Zuko scampers after her.

They reach the throne room, where Azula and Zuko stand outside for a moment. A crash, a burn, the scent of smoke. Azula's eyes flash and Zuko flinches at the sound.

"What do you mean the Avatar has returned?" growls Ozai loud enough for his children to hear him through the door.

Zuko swallows, his throat suddenly dry. Azula can only blink several times too fast. The Avatar has returned, the Fire Nation is about to have a civil war, and she is engaged to a man three times her age. She catches herself as she is about to stumble and possibly faint.

"You don't look so good," Zuko says and Azula clears her throat.

"I'm fine. I don't need your concern," Azula says coldly before fleeing the scene slowly and cautiously, trying to look cool and calm but not pulling it off.

Zuko also disappears, for fear of his father walking out of the throne room and finding him eavesdropping.

He is on thin enough ice already.

* * *

><p>"I'm getting married. This is disgusting. I..." Azula is halfway through a tirade that is mostly just repetitive and reworded complaints about sex, loathing and patriarchy.<p>

Ty Lee listens carefully, trying not to get her own emotions tangled in it. They so easily could. Far too easily, they could. Azula getting married writes off any chance of it developing. It being the relationship that has been blossoming slowly and painfully for some time.

_"Just because I invited you into my bed doesn't mean I invited you into my heart."_

"You're going to find a way out of it. You're _you_. You're perfect and smart and pretty," Ty Lee offers, beaming in defense. Azula sits down on her bed, picking at her fingernails ferociously.

"I know. There has to be a way. There is _always _a way," Azula sighs, taking two deep, timed breaths. She has better control than this, but she feels like she is spiraling into dark waters that want to suffocate her.

"I know you'll get out of it," Ty Lee murmurs.

They sit in silence for a moment before Azula moves forward like a striking wildcat. Ty Lee flinches before Azula's lips are against hers. _No, no, no... this can only lead to trouble._

Azula's hands slip into Ty Lee's shirt and her brain stops protesting. Or maybe her body tells her brain to stop protesting. It is frantic and confused, a war of tongues that winds up on the floor of the princess's bedroom.

And after it is over, Azula is going to make some excuse, some snide comment. But Ty Lee will see her eyes and bite her lip to avoid telling Azula that she is the best liar there is, but even she cannot hide something as strong as this.

But there it is. Fucking on her floor. As she is about to be married.

Azula sees her father in the morning. She has concealed what she has done, as she has with every midnight meeting with Ty Lee. He would never suspect it. And Azula wonders if she can weaponize her relationship with the acrobat to get out of her engagement to Zhao.

But her thoughts are muddy.

"I have a significant amount of news," father says and Azula nods, slowly bowing.

Someday he will bow to her. She will force him to. But for now, serving him is in her best interest. Sacrifices must be made if she wants the throne. Some sacrifices that no human should go through. But she does it.

"Yes, father?" Azula asks, realizing he is waiting to be prompted.

"The Avatar has returned. And is presumably with the rebellion. And I have news of your engagement."

Azula pretends to be surprised.

* * *

><p>Azula thinks quickly as she walks to the rose hued balcony with golden fixtures. Now it will be announced, now it will be announced that she is being forced to marry. She will tell the people how much her father loves him, and that she is a servant of the people.<p>

But Azula has the potential to be more than a tyrant like her father and grandfathers. She has the capability to be the best leader the world has ever seen. And now she is being brushed aside and tucked away because that threatens the man who made her this.

Fire Lord Ozai made her who she is.

He brought this on himself. Just like he said every time she would be brutally punished for trivial reasons.

_"You brought this on yourself."_

And Azula gazes at her two friends and supposed bodyguards. Mai already looks bored before anyone has been speaking. Ty Lee is watching Azula with a hollow, broken sadness Azula did not imagine she could experience. Ty Lee is overly optimistic and sickeningly happy and blissfully ignorant.

But now reality sets in. Azula turns away from her and turns to the public.

Now she makes her choice. Her father nods at her and her lip twists into a brief snarl that disappears when she realizes she has been doing it. The final speech is her greatest yet. It finishes in the most populated city, surrounded by the most important people. The people that threaten her father most.

Azula has no script. She jotted a few notes to herself when she was not obsessively trying to figure out how to break off her engagement before it begins.

"We observe today not a victory of battle but a celebration of freedom. Renewal, as well as change in our Nation. I have sworn before you upon the exile of my brother the same solemn oath my forefathers mad to you. I do not intend to squander it in my future reign."

Ozai did not anticipate that. Azula smiles faintly as she glimpses at him. It is intentionally meant to unnerve him.

"The world is very different now from the age of Fire Lord Sozin. We hold in our mortal hands the ability to abolish entire races of our enemies. We dare not forget today that we are heirs of that first strike."

And the Avatar is back. Sozin did not achieve as much as he was accredited with.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well of ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any ally and oppose any foe to assure the survival of liberty. Our country is on the brink of civil war."

Ozai's eyes flash.

"It is the worst move we could possibly make as a Nation. Ripping out each other's throats is a waste of resources that could be better used to spread our values and our people throughout the world. We need to build up from the ashes of our enemies and not reduce each other to ashes. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of the Fire Nation."

Azula pauses and looks around. It worked better than she imagined it would.

_Fellow citizens_, not _loyal subjects_. Little words. Little words can win her the support of every person on this street. If she takes the country, there will be no qualms. No people who need to disappear like when her father usurped Fire Lord Azulon.

It will be clean and controlled, like a bolt of lightning.

"And so, my fellow citizens, ask not what the Fire Nation can do for you; ask what you can do for the Fire Nation."

Azula steps back. She has not thought of what to do next. At the end of her words she will have to accept an engagement and pretend to be happy. To pretend her dream is to walk down an aisle and not walk down the path to absolute power.

It hits her as she is stepping backwards and Admiral Zhao is stepping forward. In plain sight of the people who were brought to teas by adoration of the pretty princess with prettier words, she seizes Ty Lee by the wrist, startling her.

In the light of the sun, she presses her lips against the acrobat's. Zhao freezes in place. Everyone stops, as if time halted.

Azula takes the extremely confused acrobat by the hand and walks past Zhao.

"I am also pleased to announce my engagement, as promised."

* * *

><p>As soon as Azula and Ty Lee are out of the sight of the people fawning over them as a couple, they are ripped apart. Ty Lee is half dragged away by guards she snaps at for being rough with her. Azula has her wrist seized by her father and finds herself shut in the library with him.<p>

It smells of dust and victory. Azula's heart beats quickly as she feels brilliant.

"So, you decided to sabotage your engagement," is all father says, in a low tone that would have terrified a younger Azula. Slowly, Azula nods. "Do you love her?"

Azula is silent. She doesn't. It was simply to incite people. Simply to defeat any chances of being married off because the public is enamored with her declaration of love and long, passionate kiss on the balcony.

"No," Azula replies honestly. It is not important enough to lie to her father over.

"Well, you better act like it. If you value your right to the throne at all, you better be ready to live happily ever after with this circus whore." He pauses. "Let's give the people what they want."

"I fully intend to."

They lock eyes for a moment, but do not fight.

It is uncertain who would win at this point.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, exposition phase is over. We're now starting the plot, of the engagement and the Avatar and such. It's mostly Azula and Ty Lee's point of views now, except the occasional glimpse into Aang, but not as much as there has been so far.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

Sokka is not pleased. As he sits upon Appa, made very uncomfortable by how far off the ground and above certain death he is, he has listened to the plan of the Avatar for their trip to the North Pole. As a strategist in the rebellion, Sokka is not impressed. Katara, however, is clearly enamored with the kid, which makes Sokka just want to shake some sense into his sister.

"So, you want to ride on a giant fish while the Fire Nation is still ruling the world?" Sokka demands, raising an eyebrow. Katara chews on her lip, not wanting to admit that she agrees with him. Aang shrugs, a look of hope in his eyes that Katara cannot help but enjoy. She cannot remember the last time she saw someone's eyes like that.

"Well... yes..." Aang replies feebly, turning his palms up. His cheeks are flushed pink and Katara studies both he and Sokka closely.

"It's on the way to the North Pole, right?" Katara offers hopefully and Sokka groans.

"_Everything _is on the way to the North Pole, Katara," but no one listens to him as Aang nods feverishly.

And, despite Sokka's protest, the group lands on a cold beach. The sand is rocky and rugged, the water in the bay frigid. Katara shivers, stroking Appa's fur as she examines the sparkling sea. Something moves beneath the water and Aang perks up.

Giant Koi fish. _Very giant _Koi fish, Sokka realizes with a raised eyebrow.

But as Katara watches, laughing at the absurdity, Sokka hears something in the bushes.

"We're distracted. _You're _distracted," Sokka snaps at Katara as he draws his boomerang. "The Avatar may be what we need to win the war, but I'm not a huge fan of Aang."

Katara frowns at him in response.

She thinks that Aang is something bright in a dark, scorched world.

But then she hears the cracking of twigs.

* * *

><p>Ty Lee does not know what to think as she is being dragged by her wrists. Azula kissing her publicly felt <em>amazing<em>, but it is definitely not good that she did it instead of letting her engagement to Zhao be announced. Marrying Azula sounds _fantastic_, but somehow Ty Lee feels that this will involve more pain than pleasure.

"Were you aware of this?" is directed at her by a cold male voice. Her lips pop open in surprise as she is at a lack for words.

"No?" Ty Lee offers. She is led to a dim room, surrounded by soldiers and fairly certain she is going to be killed. When Azula said she was going to take the country... Ty Lee can only hope she was not _serious_. If the acrobat is about to implicated in some kind of attempted coup... well...

"How did your relationship with the princess begin?" demands a female voice. She has just entered and Ty Lee was too distracted by the silvery glint of weapons to notice.

"You mean romantically?" Ty Lee raises an eyebrow, her heart palpitating.

The woman looks tough yet sophisticated, with thick dark hair and angled features. The scrutiny in her amber eyes plunges into Ty Lee and tries to vivisect her. Ty Lee can only feel utter terror at the examination of a relationship that does not even exist.

Azula has trapped Ty Lee in lies many times before. But never in a one that could cause the most damage as this one.

Beads of sweat develop on Ty Lee's peachy skin as she stares at her interrogator and hopes for an answer. The woman does not soften at all as she witnesses the fear of the teenage girl in front of her; in fact, it seems to make her expression even more stoic.

"Yes, romantically. We're all aware you two were childhood friends," the woman finally says and Ty Lee wonders if she took her time or Ty Lee is imagining things as far slower due to her anxiety.

"Well, when I got back to the Fire Nation before the comet we reunited and it was nice. We, uh, wound up kinda, uh, _sparking_ something." Ty Lee hopes Azula has not told them anything different than what she is explaining. "When she came back from burning down Ba Sing Se, we, uh, _did things_."

"You two slept together?" the woman demands with a flash of her eyes that make Ty Lee gulp.

"Yes. More than once." Hesitation. Ty Lee needs to be like Azula now; she needs to be strong and make up eloquent words to cover her tracks. But it never was a strong suit. "We fell in love. I'm in love with her and she is in love with me. I'm sure the engagement was irrational, but I can't imagine living without her, and I'm sure she would say the same about me."

The woman pauses, her eyes narrowed. Ty Lee tries to keep her breathing calm as she closes her eyes and waits for the verdict.

"Teenagers," the woman sighs and Ty Lee's eyes flutter open. "Teenagers in love. It's disgusting."

Ty Lee breathes a small sigh of relief. She is sure Azula would prefer to be seen as an irrational teenager in love instead of a girl planning on overpowering her father and stealing the Fire Nation. Ty Lee slumps in her chair, glad she managed to divert the blame.

"Hormones, you know?" Ty Lee chirps and the woman slowly shakes her head.

The same hormones that still have Ty Lee tenderly aching for another kiss like the one Azula gave her. It was a show; it was for the public. But it was more passionate than any other kiss Ty Lee has ever experienced.

_Hormones_. Ugh.

* * *

><p>Zhao punches the wall with a single blazing fist. Chan cringes at the motion, chewing on his lip. He would genuinely prefer not be in the same room as a man who never could control his violent outbursts after his perfectly orchestrated play for power was stolen from him.<p>

"It's exactly like her, isn't it?" Zhao demands and Chan can only blink. "I would never speak ill of the princess, but she likes to have her way at the cost of anyone else."

Chan does not point out that Zhao is speaking ill of the princess; he simply nods. Nor does Chan point out that Zhao is exactly that kind of person as well, but with less grace about it than Azula. The attraction, albeit one sided, is not surprising at all.

"Maybe there's a way out of it," Chan offers and Zhao laughs mirthlessly.

"The people love them. They know nothing about this girl, and they love that she's with Azula. No one would be foolish enough to change the engagement at this point. Not with the country about to break out into a civil war," Zhao says coldly and Chan does not know what else to say.

"I think it was the look in her eyes," Chan offers about Ty Lee but Zhao is no longer listening.

It was well arranged. It was a plan that Zhao was proud to be a part of, despite it having nothing to do with the military. In fact, it even had little to do with his own fantasies about Azula. Those unfulfilled fantasies that he was dumb enough to think would be fulfilled if Azula knew of them.

She is smart. Too smart for her own good. It is why Fire Lord Ozai fears her and he is _right _to fear her. If Zhao had anything to say about Azula, he would inform the Fire Lord that she is more trouble than she is worth.

But Zhao is smart enough to keep his mouth shut. That is, until Azula slips up.

And inevitably, she will.

That night he dreams of her. It is an erotic nightmare.

And he plans, entirely, to unhinge this plan she has built. It may seem dumb at first, but Fire Lord Ozai will reward it once he sees past his little girl and realize he is dealing with what could be his worst enemy.

One cold shower later, he is already plotting.

Two can play at this game.

* * *

><p>Azula sits across from her father at dinner. He has evaded her for the past two days and Azula is grateful. She is not one to <em>want <em>to be the subject of his wrath. Nor has she seen what has become of either Ty Lee or Zhao. Mai has also been distinctly missing, and Azula's only human interaction has been with servants.

But now father wants to eat with her, and Azula can only play with her food and contemplate what words will serve her best.

"I think you can safely say that I didn't go down exactly as you thought I would," Azula says sweetly, examining her father closely. He still is not over his daughter decimating his plans for her. "My propaganda tour was met by several attempts on my life. Maybe I'm _not _the Fire Nation sweetheart with the golden touch."

"Well, the people love you enough to ensure that you're going to be marrying someone entirely worthless to me. The news of your engagement has spread like wildfire," Ozai replies, his voice calm but a certain magma beneath his words.

"Do you regret sending me on that tour?" Azula asks kindly again, raising an eyebrow.

"Not as much as you're going to regret that stunt at the speech," father replies and Azula swallows her next sentence. It suddenly becomes very real to her that she crossed the Fire Lord, not just angered her overbearing father.

She examines her food closely, realizing she will need to be much more careful. Her mind is not made up yet if she wants to seize the country; she loves her father and would not want to harm him. The temptations she faced while she was on her tour, embittered, now seem less tempting.

In no way does she regret sabotaging her engagement to Admiral Zhao. But she also realizes she will need to be cautious if she is going to make any progress towards getting the throne. Does she want to sit and wait and stay out of the way for the next thirty years? Perhaps not. Does she want to meet a fate worse than Zuko? Definitely not.

"It wasn't meant as rebellion. I just couldn't marry him, father," Azula says in her best impression of his sweet, young daughter. The one he pretends still exists after all of the people she has killed and all of the things she has seen and done by the age of sixteen.

Ozai studies her closely and falls for it. Azula is glad she has his trust. If Zuko were to try this, he would be dead.

"I'm playing it off as teenage love. You don't love her, no. But you don't love him either. Do you find her preferable?" Ozai asks and Azula hopes he is unaware that he is walking right into her hands.

"I'd rather marry her. I couldn't just let myself be handed away to some man thirty years older than me. I believe that once you give me the throne I will be a competent enough leader to not have to worry about marriage."

"Marriage for love is a luxury only the poor can afford," Ozai says and Azula takes a deep breath, carefully navigating her next words.

"Don't you want better for me than you?" Azula asks and by invoking her mother, she wins by default.

"I do," Ozai says before sipping wine and allowing Azula to get away with it.

She suppresses a smile and slices her meat.

Blood trickles onto the golden plate.

* * *

><p>"The public wants us to be desperately in love," Azula murmurs, brushing Ty Lee's bangs from her face. The acrobat tries not to savor the gentle touch, but she does nonetheless. "I think we should give the people what they want."<p>

Ty Lee does not know if she should be hopeful or terrified. She toys with the hem of her skirt and realizes how screwed she is for wanting to screw the Fire Nation Princess. But the idea of marrying Azula is thrilling, and... even if Azula is just pretending, Ty Lee certainly is not.

They are sitting in Azula's room, the sun slowly setting and staining the sky with the shades of the Fire Nation. Ty Lee has lived and breathed the propaganda, and only now is she a part of it, as she realizes that keeping up appearances is more important than truly being a strong nation.

The world was theirs the moment Sozin killed the Air Nomads. Now it is simply a matter of holding on and hoping no one bats the globe out of Fire Lord Ozai's hands.

"Tomorrow morning we have some kind of meeting with a political trainer. Expect it to be boring," Azula says, rising from the vanity where she was undoing her hair and wiping off her make-up and slipping into the sheets of her bed. Ty Lee still sits awkwardly beside the windowsill, wondering if she should join Azula or not.

Ty Lee hesitates as the sun dips lower and the sky slowly becomes indigo. And with a deep breath, she slides into bed beside Azula. She imagines they will melt into each other and be riddled with regret in the morning once Azula realizes the truth of what she has done.

And they do. Azula's lips lock with hers and Ty Lee clings to her.

In the morning, Ty Lee still clings. Azula is blissfully sleeping and Ty Lee studies her slowly, and how the sunlight reflects on her skin. Azula's eyes open at a pounding on the door that makes Ty Lee jump in fright.

"Relax. It's Seiri," Azula says with a small sigh and roll of her golden eyes. Ty Lee touches her heart and fumbles for her clothes, not wanting to be caught naked in the princess's bed. That never seemed like a good idea.

"Who's Seiri?" Ty Lee inquires as Azula opens the door.

"I'm aware my day is meticulously scheduled and you can tell me about it once I'm dressed," Azula says before shutting the door instantly. Ty Lee caught a small glimpse of the woman outside, and she is someone Ty Lee had seen around Azula before but never knew much about.

Azula turns to Ty Lee as she throws open her wardrobe and searches for clothes. "Seiri is my life manager of the past two years. I go through them quite quickly but I happen to like her more than most of them."

Ty Lee knows that Azula goes through servants quickly. Her nannies never lasted long, but most of that was about her loathing for being mothered or cared for. She walks through the world as if she is constantly on fire, and anyone not strong enough to withstand her blaze burns to ashes.

And Ty Lee is sweating from the destructive heat. How long will it be before she combusts?

"Okay," Ty Lee offers, slipping out of bed and pulling on her clothes. The pink fabric is wrinkled and used; she wishes she had brought extra clothes, but she had no idea she would be sleeping over.

"You're surprisingly okay with all of this," Azula remarks as she starts to do her make-up.

"I figure I have no choice. I might as well enjoy myself." Ty Lee grins.

"Your optimism disgusts me." And at that bitter insult, Azula kisses Ty Lee passionately, leaving the acrobat incredibly confused.

Constant confusion. She has no idea what to expect from Azula. Not that she did _before _they were sexually involved, but it grew far more confusing as time passed.

Ty Lee simply readies herself for the day with Azula and keeps her fear to herself.

* * *

><p>"The engagement party is tomorrow," Seiri explains, holding a scroll of neat handwriting listing different things she has to go over.<p>

Azula is used to it by now. Her father thrives on controlling every aspect of her life, and everything is scheduled and planned. Ty Lee is less used to this; she spent the past two years in a circus where nothing was planned but rehearsals and she slept in a tent.

"That's fast," Ty Lee remarks before feeling foolish.

"It was planned for me and Zhao. I'm sure it's been in the works for at least a year," Azula says coldly and Seiri squirms uncomfortably. Her fear of Azula is evident, but her fear of Ozai much stronger.

"I'd like to go over some etiquette training with you two."

* * *

><p>Azula and Mai sit on the sidelines as Lin puts Ty Lee into a variety of dresses. They did not have an elaborate one planned, like they did for Azula. No one was expected a second dress for the happy couple. Mai sips from a teacup of cold tea and Azula gazes at the scene with detailed plans behind her golden eyes.<p>

"There is no way someone as twisted as you could ever deserve that girl," Mai remarks to Azula and the princess rolls her eyes. "What? She's going along with this really nicely."

"She just wants to be the Fire Nation's sweetheart. Everybody paying attention to her..."

"She's in love with you and you know it. That's why you planted a kiss on her and not me. You've involved me in most of your schemes throughout our lives. Last time I checked I was your go to girl for treason. But you know she's in love with you and loyal and everybody will believe her because it's true coming from her," Mai explains and Azula sighs.

"You should leave it alone," Azula replies in a sugary, silken tone.

"I'm not going to do anything about it. I really don't care, to be honest. But I am going to say that you don't deserve her."

Azula does not know why she allows Mai to talk at all. She feels herself bristle at the accusation, although she knows deep down that Mai has a point.

"I deserve Zhao? Or perhaps _you_?"

"I'm not your matchmaker. You just don't deserve her."

Azula knows she is right. But she will never admit it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Well, I have 6 final projects/essays due next week, and they've been really occupying me, if that's a valid excuse for having so little of this done/posted. But I have this fic all planned out and lots of scenes and bits written, and once I hit break and spring semester I'm going to have oodles of free time to complete it. Just right now is a rocky spot because I decided to be dumb and take so many classes I honestly need a time turner. During my junior year. Thanks for your patience, and I'm really thrilled with the response to this, it makes me really, really happy.


	6. Chapter 6

Katara tries to summon water but struggles as she hears the approaching footsteps. Sokka draws his boomerang, the sharp metal glittering in the sunlight around the bay. Even Aang notices something is wrong, and he dives into the sea, swimming towards them with a little help from airbending.

They stand on the beach, hearts racing as they find themselves surrounded by warriors. And before any of them can fight, they are taken down simultaneously and tied up. Katara tries to scream before she is gagged, and they are dragged into a small town.

It is rebuilt from Fire Nation attacks, that much is evident. And it has the gloom of an Earth Kingdom town that has been abused by the ruling nation. This town has clearly been through a lot, just like every town Katara has seen after the comet.

"Give me one reason why you aren't Fire Nation," a female voice demands and Katara finally gets a good look at her captors. They dragged them facing the ground, so only parts of the town were visible. It is a group of girls in strange outfits, fighters.

"You're the Kyoshi Warriors," Sokka declares and the girl blinks at him in response.

"We know who _we _are. We asked who _you _are," she says sharply, her dark eyes narrowing on Sokka. He suddenly looks very uncomfortable, breathing in deeply.

"I know you're Kyoshi Warriors because you helped with the rebellion. My father is Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe," Sokka says and there is no recognition in her eyes. _Fuck_.

"I know him," protests another girl, this one with thick raven hair. The girl who seems to be the leader glances at her. "He sent us a lot of intelligence from the Earth Kingdom."

"Kyoshi..." Aang is clearly elsewhere as Katara is trying to figure out a way out of this situation and the bonds on her wrist. "I _know _Kyoshi."

"You know Kyoshi?" snorts the leader of the warriors. She looks almost amused.

"Yeah," Aang says, grinning. Katara is completely confused. "Because I'm the Avatar."

It is the first time Katara has heard Aang proudly declare what he is. He tends to be secretive about it, and not talk much. When she followed him as he was about to make his escape, he said he never wanted to be the Avatar. But as he looks at the decrepit, scorched statue of Kyoshi, he seems slightly happy.

Perhaps it is familiar to him.

"You're the Avatar? The Avatar hasn't been heard from in over a hundred years," the leader says, crossing her arms. She no longer looks entertained and Katara feels her heart rate speed up.

"Do some airbending," Sokka groans at Aang and Aang nods.

He escapes his bonds with a aerial flip, conjures a few waves of air, reveling in how impressed everyone is. It feels good to be admired, he has to admit.

"You were a lot of help during the comet," the leader girl says sarcastically and Aang stops making an air scooter. It is suddenly easier to breathe for everyone around, but Katara feels abruptly constricted. "Thanks for coming."

Aang frowns.

Everybody feels the same way that he does.

_Failure_.

That night, Aang dreams of Avatar Kyoshi. It is more than just a dream. It feels like a vision.

"These people are hurt by your absence, I know. But you need to go see Roku. During the winter solstice, go to the Fire Nation to see the sages there. There is still a way to win the war," Kyoshi says calmly as Aang is still trying to come to terms with what is happening to him, and why the dream has such an eerie blue glow.

When he wakes up, he has been sleepwalking. He rubs his sore head and looks at Katara and Sokka. They are fast asleep in the beds given to them by Suki and her friends. It took a dinner and some getting to know everyone, but they were friends of Hakoda and always willing to help allies against the Fire Nation.

Aang could only sigh, glance out of the window, and wonder how he was supposed to get to the Fire Nation to meet with Avatar Roku.

* * *

><p>"Everybody who's anybody is here, and they all want to meet you," Seiri says to Ty Lee, who is a combination of excited and terrified. That seems to be her constant state of emotion since Azula decide to spring an engagement on her.<p>

"So this is the engagement party?" Ty Lee asks feebly, adjusting her dress. It is lovely, but not quite her shade. The dark red reminds her of blood and the gilded thread in the shape of a rising sun is too _old _for her style. But she will wear what they tell her to wear and say what they tell her to say, because she gets more terrified every day.

They stand outside of the gates to a gigantic mansion of one of the Fire Lord's most trusted advisors. For some reason, it is not going on in the palace, likely because of the sensitive information held within the walls of the Fire Lord's home. And Ty Lee looks at the gorgeous fire fountains and the beautiful people surrounding her, dressed in outlandish clothes. It is lovely, truly lovely, and she is ecstatic to be involved in a royal wedding.

But it also kills her. She knows Azula is most likely using her to avoid the marriage to Zhao. She _knows _it, and it does hurt. But Azula kisses Ty Lee on the cheek and Ty Lee breathes in slowly, inhaling the scent of gravel and flowers.

It will be okay.

"You don't like the dress," Seiri remarks as she studies Ty Lee closely. "You're beautiful; people will be looking at your face, not the dress. You have such stunning eyes, after all."

"Thank you," Ty Lee chokes. Her cheeks flush slightly at the welcome compliment. "I don't necessarily like the dress, but it's fine. It looks good."

"They had to make it at the last second. Given the... erm, circumstances," Seiri says before blushing much more fiercely than Ty Lee. Skirting around the fact that Azula changed plans a year in the making is evident in the words of everyone Ty Lee encounters. "The party has been planned for a long time."

"As I said," Azula purrs, wrapping her arm around Ty Lee's waist. Ty Lee blushes light pink, happy for the contact. "It's just a party. And they'll all be paying attention to you; you'll like that."

"I guess," Ty Lee says slowly before grinning. She knows she should enjoy this; she _knows _she should.

And she and Azula walk up the path with their hands intertwined, entering the house and being greeted by servants and dignitaries alike. Ty Lee's heart is beating out of her chest as they are guided to the main room, which has marks on the floor as if furniture has been moved to make room for the guests.

Ty Lee is stunned by one thing above all else: the food. She has never been starving, never been neglected when it came to trying every delicacy from Fire to Water to Earth. But this seems a little lavish for people who dedicate their lives to staying muscular and capable of throttling an earthbender with their bare hands.

Endless tables of expensive food. Anything you could possibly imagine. Meat, evidently, and a lot of it, a lot of it turning on flaming spits. The fires have all been turned colors and Ty Lee is not sure how that works, but it looks very impressive. She particularly likes the pink flame that is keeping warm something with tentacles and a spicy sauce. Cheeses, breads, vegetables Ty Lee cannot name, _oh the chocolate_, literal waterfalls of wine coming from bowls with statues of Fire Nation spirits, and streams of hard liquor kept away from the never-ending fire.

"Can I just eat some of everything?" Ty Lee whispers to Azula as Mai arrives with Zuko hooked to her arm. She is muscling him across the room, avoiding all of the stares at the traitor prince. He is not welcome here and she very well knows it; Ozai has tasked her with keeping her boyfriend out of trouble.

"You better pace yourself. I'm not holding your hair while you hurl," Azula whispers back before greeting Mai and her brother.

Azula and Ty Lee try to stay out of the way at first. But it is impossible; Seiri was right and everybody wants to talk to them. It is stunning compared to the propaganda tour, in which Ty Lee thought Azula was swamped. But now everyone in the entire mansion wants to be talking to them.

Ty Lee thrives on the attention, bouncing comments around and giggling. Azula holds onto her as her eyes continuously flicker to her father, whom Ty Lee realizes is watching them later than she should have. The tension between Azula and Ozai is palpable and it deeply concerns Ty Lee.

"Are we in trouble?" Ty Lee asks as Azula drags her to a dance floor and pulls her into a tiny dance that consists of doing a few steps in a small circle. They are not noticed amongst the sea of couples. Fortunately, in Azula's opinion. Unfortunately, in Ty Lee's.

"Yes," Azula replies softly as they spin around. Ty Lee leans very close and feels the heat that radiates from her fiancée.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Ty Lee asks softly, digging her fingers into Azula. The princess realizes how frightened she is when she feels her palpitating heart. Her lips purse slightly; this is problematic.

"We're supposed to play along with my father quietly and calmly until we marry and everything cools down," Azula replies slowly, drawing each word out. No one can overhear due to the music, but Ty Lee still feels slightly nervous.

The speech comes after the first half of the party. People are seated, around each other, and Ty Lee and Azula are guided onto a stage that looks like it was just built. Ty Lee's skirt catches slightly on a bent nail and there is a small tear. She gulps as Azula strings her along the stage.

"It's my pleasure to introduce my daughter and her fiancee," Ozai says, glancing at Azula. She smiles warmly at the audience and Ty Lee grins a little too forcefully. "We've been planning this engagement for some time and I'm very happy for her. She is so incredibly _in love_." And Azula kisses Ty Lee on the cheek to punctuate his words. The crowd _oo_s and _aww_s, smitten by teenage love. "Right now is a time of trial for our Nation. We've won the war against the other nations and have to look inward at ourselves. And I'm sure we will love looking at this darling couple."

His words are cold and dark but the people perceive them as warm. Azula feels her heart racing as she tries to keep herself calm. Ozai continues his speech, most of the words directed at Azula. He suspects she will try to overthrow him and, to be honest, it worries her. But she plays the ditsy girl who is excited to get married and the party guests eat it up.

"I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing her wedding dress," Ozai finishes as the people clap. He sits beside Azula as the wedding planner starts making a speech. The wedding planner is the kind of woman who wears lip-liner and too much of it. He turns to his daughter and quietly says, "You are on very thin ice, I hope you know that? Don't make a mistake. I don't just want the public to believe you love her; _I _want to believe you love her."

"I _am_ a good liar, father," Azula says without looking at him.

And so the speeches continue.

"Can I steal your fiancée for a dance?" Admiral Zhao asks Ty Lee and she glances nervously at Azula. The princess is locked in a dry conversation with a girl she attended school with, pretending to be interested.

"I guess," Ty Lee squeaks, unsure how to deny him. She tugs on Azula's arm and the princess turns to face Zhao, instantly turning her expression sour.

Ty Lee opens her mouth to tell Azula, but the princess interrupts with, "I heard. I heard. I'll dance with you."

And so she walks to Zhao, looking vaguely like she is floating, and takes his hand. She is in control of this situation but that does not stop a small surge of anxiety. There are bound to be some form of repercussions from her stunt on the balcony. But he is in no position to dole them out or grant them.

"That was interesting," Zhao remarks as he slips one hand behind Azula's back. The steps of this dance could be performed on a pie plate. And they are very deliberate and slow.

"I was desperately in love, you see," Azula purrs and his fingers dig into her spine slightly. But she does not wince or lash out at him; she is playing this as calmly as she can. Starting a fight on the dance floor, while satisfying, would not be in the best interest of her play for power.

"With her...?" Zhao's gaze leads Azula to glance at Ty Lee, who seems to be struggling to eat while Mai looks pained with secondhand embarrassment. The tentacles of the calamari keep slipping out of her pink lips. Azula swallows.

"Yes, with her. I've loved her since we were children and the thought of marrying someone other than her terrified me. Enough that my own life didn't matter," Azula says, the words rehearsed yet believable. Her talents as a liar have only come to serve her well.

"Is that so?" He does not believe her and she can tell. But she does not care at all. She simply watches the party watching them and feels a small satisfaction. "It probably would have been in your best interest to go with the plan."

"Probably. But it's too late to go back now," Azula says as the music shifts into another song. She does not recognize any of them; the band must be playing their own creations instead of traditional melodies.

"I suppose it is," Zhao says, leaning far too close to her.

"It would probably be in your best interest to stay on my good side. I'm not finished," Azula says softly and Zhao stiffens. "This has been a nice dance."

"Not very long," he says as she breaks free of him.

"What can I say? I'm a tease." And she walks to Mai, Ty Lee and Zuko, shuddering. He is not someone she wants to deal with much longer.

"What did he want?" Ty Lee asks softly, examining Azula.

"Nothing," Azula lies and Ty Lee does not question her. She simply finishes her calamari, with a struggle and takes the princess's hand again.

"Do you want to go outside?" Ty Lee asks softly, squeezing Azula's hand.

"I would love to." Azula glances around at the guests, now more occupied with each other than with Azula and Ty Lee. And so the two girls duck out of the party into the well-kept garden. "I feel very watched."

"Tell me about it," Ty Lee squeaks as they are finally alone.

The night air is cool and comfortable as Azula plucks one of the ruby, dew studded flowers and slips it behind Ty Lee's ear. While the acrobat tries to be flattered, she knows very well that she and Azula do not love each other in the same way.

"Do you think," Ty Lee asks as she studies the sky, "two people ever love each other the same way at the same time?"

Azula looks up at the stars and shrugs. "Probably not. It's unfortunate."

"Are you really going to take the country?"

"Well, that changed quickly," Azula purrs, taken off guard by Ty Lee's comment. She truly did not expect her to be so astute or blunt.

"I want to know," Ty Lee insists softly and Azula shrugs again.

"I think I will," Azula replies honestly, startled she does not lie. But Ty Lee deserves to know if they are going to be married. "We'll reign together. It should be fun."

"But your father?"

"I love him." Hesitation. "But he uses my love. Why can't I use his?"

"I love _you_," Ty Lee says smoothly and Azula smiles faintly. Her thoughts were lingering on her father and how he is the sole reason she trusts no one, including Ty Lee. "You know, I'm pretty excited about this whole wedding thing."

"You _would _be," Azula laughs, shaking her head slowly. "I never planned weddings as a child. I planned... battles. This should be interesting for me, at least."

"Interesting is good," Ty Lee says, slipping closer to Azula. She kisses her warmly on the lips and Azula enjoys it. She likes the way she tastes, the way she smells, but she cannot love her no matter how hard she tries.

Maybe Azula simply cannot love. It is possible to be born that way, isn't it?

Isn't it?

She watches Ty Lee explore the garden in moderate awe of her beauty and naivety.

Mai was right. Azula could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve her.

* * *

><p>Ty Lee pulls off her uncomfortable, relatively ugly dress and lies down on her bed in one of the many guest rooms of the royal palace. She is staying here until she and Azula leave for the Earth Kingdom, and then will move in permanently after the wedding.<p>

She lights candles with a match she struggles to find, and finally sits down on the bed and rubs her temples. This night has been both fun, but also terrifying. Ozai speech makes her nervous, Azula scares her, her stomach hurts from eating too much and she thinks she may be about to be involved in an usurping.

The circus was much, much simpler.

Across the palace, Azula also settles down to sleep. She is very displeased with how tonight has turned out, but at least she survived. Her thoughts cannot linger long on the next phase of her plan as all she wants to do is sleep. Sleep, sweet sleep. It is funny how she can feel such a _buzz _while at the party, thinking through social situations, and once she alone, just want to drift off permanently.

She slips under her blankets and sleeps until the doorknob twists.

Down the hall, Zuko lies intertwined with Mai. "She's going to get us all killed with this Ty Lee thing, isn't she?" he asks and Mai groans. She was _almost _asleep.

"Probably. I don't blame her though. Being forced to marry you is bad enough and I actually like you. Imagine if _you _were told your reward for conquering Ba Sing Se was marrying Zhao," Mai says, yawning. Zuko has to admit she has a point.

"Yeah. Here's to hoping our deaths are quick and painless."

They kiss.

* * *

><p>"So, we have to get to the Fire Nation," Aang says happily, as if this does not pose a massive problem. Sokka only rubs his temples in response. "That shouldn't be... too hard."<p>

"Shouldn't be too hard?" Sokka breathes in disbelief. Katara squirms; she agrees with her brother. "Shouldn't be _too hard_? The temple we have to get to is directly in the line of sight of the navy. Close to the Capitol City! We would be _so _screwed if we got caught."

"But we have to talk to Avatar Roku," Aang replies, looking weak. Katara rubs his back and Sokka groans. He is certain that the Avatar is not the weapon they need, but no one is agreeing with him. "He might know how to defeat the Fire Nation!"

Sokka pauses. He had not thought of that. But why wouldn't the Fire Avatar know how to beat them? Or at least an idea. That might _almost _be worth delving into the Fire Nation.

"I _do _have Katara and I's passports from when we were going to infiltrate," Sokka says slowly, hating how Katara and Aang look so thrilled that he is agreeing. It bothers him to no end. "We can go to the Fire Nation to talk to Roku _if_ you agree to help us with the infiltration plan."

"But we have to go to the North Pole."

"Well that first, yes. But Aang still hasn't said yes," Sokka says with a cocked eyebrow and Aang swallows.

"I guess it can't hurt?" he says hopefully and Sokka nods. This better pay off.

Katara claps her hands and they both curl up to spend the night on Kyoshi Island before taking Appa to see the Fire Sages.


	7. Chapter 7

"I don't, uh, I don't know," Ty Lee says, squinting at the flowers. They have minute differences, but they all are red, have petals, and smell fragrant. Usually, she would just point to the prettiest one, but the weight on her shoulders is becoming painful.

Today is her first day of wedding planning, and certainly not the last. Today is the first day when it truly sets in that she is involved in this scam and there is no escaping no matter how hard she bats her eyelashes or pleads. She is marrying Princess Azula, not because of love or an arrangement, but because of treason. And the fact that she agreed certainly makes her an accessory in treason, particularly since she happens to be a spy for Fire Lord Ozai, feeding him false information.

"I'll take care of it," Seiri says as Ty Lee points at three different flowers and the florist breaks out into a sweat. "Why don't you help the princess organize the wedding party?"

Ty Lee glances at Azula, who looks as if she would rather be stranded at sea than filling out the list in front of her. She pushes a flower away from her face and sneezes. Ty Lee smiles faintly at how cute she is when she sneezes, like a little baby tiger monkey.

"So, uh, I guess this is up to you or something," Ty Lee says, sitting down in front of Azula. "I kind of imagined I would be your maid of honor and you would be _mine_. But, I guess... we're the happy couple."

"Hm." Azula is tired, annoyed, sweating from the humid flower shop, and looking at the list of requirements her father left for her, which seem to simply be made to make her life more difficult.

"You look very unhappy," Ty Lee comments, setting her chin in her hands and her elbows on the small table.

"Hm," is the only response Ty Lee gets.

"Did you not sleep last night?" Ty Lee inquires, starting to read the wedding party list Ozai gave Azula.

_It's hard to sleep when you're plotting overthrowing an empire_, Azula thinks, but she says aloud, "No, I didn't. Why don't _you _do this for me? You strike me as the kind of person who spends their entire life planning their wedding. I never really thought about it."

Ty Lee _has _spent her entire life planning her wedding, but she did not imagine it as being an act of defiance against the Fire Lord. And she did not imagine how much stress she and Azula are under right now with the scrutiny and paranoia of Fire Lord Ozai.

This morning Ty Lee overheard an argument between two advisors to the Fire Lord. Their tones were hushed but she moved silently on her way to Azula's room. They were discussing how the Fire Lord was becoming more and more paranoid every day, and that people were disappearing left and right.

And it was only then that the weight of what she and Azula have done set in. Ozai fears Azula more than he fears government officials. And now Ty Lee is bound to whatever fate Azula faces. And the princess seems to think she can easily claim an empire is hers without her father putting up a fight.

But Ty Lee blinks away those thoughts and tries to think about who she wants to be the flower girl. That is significantly easier for her. She can take calm breaths as Azula is curled up sleeping on her chair, and think about how she will be a princess soon, and have a glamorous royal wedding. Even if it will forever put her under the scrutiny of Ozai.

Until the day she becomes Fire Lady. And Ty Lee thinks that Azula will have that happen earlier rather than later. And it has been giving Ty Lee nausea, pain and vivid dreams of everything she loves burning up in blue fire, one by one. Or the waking nightmares of what would happen if Ozai simply made everybody in her family disappear.

Ty Lee gulps again, knowing she has gotten too lost in her thoughts. Not thinking is easier. Not thinking is always easier. She scrawls down a few suggestions on the paper Azula has abandoned in favor of sleep. And she controls the breathing she thinks would spiral out of control if she left it unchecked.

She feels weak in the knees and fuzzy in the head. The scent of flowers makes her feel even dizzier, and so she barely notices when the windows next to her break, and she instinctively dodges and hits the floor.

Seiri screams, terrified. Azula jumps up, no longer groggy. A bench from across the street was just thrown through the window of the flower shop, and broken glass now litters the floor. Azula catches sight of three slender people in masks and throws herself over the broken window, narrowly avoiding a nasty cut.

"I'll follow her," Ty Lee tells Seiri, who looks on the verge of tears as the florist clings onto her.

Ty Lee vaults over the broken window and runs after Azula as she chases the three masked figures through busy streets. Ty Lee knocks down things people are holding, stammering apologies as she runs and flips over things that are in her way. She moves as if gravity does not exist, and her heart pounds as she follows the girl she has sworn to protect, however little protection Azula needs.

Azula is standing at the edge of a fork in the streets, gasping for breath. Ty Lee reaches her and grabs her arm.

"Where did they go?" Ty Lee asks, looking around frantically.

"I lost them," Azula says, shrugging. Ty Lee wonders why she is not taking it seriously, until she holds up a small book. "But they dropped this."

Ty Lee smiles at Azula's small smirk.

* * *

><p>Azula and Ty Lee sit in her room with the door locked and the shades drawn. The only light comes from a single oil lamp, and Ty Lee can barely see the smudged lettering in the book.<p>

"You're going to get angry at me for saying this, princess," Ty Lee squeaks, afraid to continue but knowing she _must_. "But I think you should give this to your father."

"Why?" Azula snaps and Ty Lee recoils. "I need all the weapons I can get. For my whole life I have tolerated every kind of abuse and frustration and ridiculous demand. I tolerated my father robbing me of my best ideas and acting as if he handed me my victory over Ba Sing Se on a platter. People are making their plays for power, Ty Lee. I'm not saying they endanger us, but I can name at least three people who would give their right arm to see us on a pyre."

"Like Zhao," Ty Lee murmurs."

"Mhm. You think he was going to marry me because I'm just so _pretty_? He lost his chance at seizing the throne. My father thinks he's protecting himself by being so paranoid. But he's screwing himself. And the throne is _my _birthright. If I have to fight tooth and nail like some kind of _animal_ to get what I've suffered for sixteen years for, so be it," Azula lectures and Ty Lee averts her eyes, cheeks flushed with humiliation.

"What does the book say?" Ty Lee asks, pushing her fears to the back of her mind and trying her best not to think.

"It's details about the Civil War," Azula says, setting it on her knees and leaning back against her pillows. "A lot observations. They've been watching us. And a handful of other people. They've also been watching the Avatar."

Ty Lee's eyes flutter in surprise. "You think the Avatar is going to...?"

"I think he's trying to get to the North Pole. And I also _know _that he betrayed the rebels in the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe by running away instead of following their plans. It's just intercepted correspondence but it's good to know," Azula says softly, flipping through the book. "If he needs a waterbending teacher, do you think he needs a firebending teacher?"

"You're kidding, right?" Ty Lee whimpers.

"Mostly." Azula shrugs and turns the wrinkled page. "Although if we had the Avatar we would be ahead of the game. Right now we're far too close to the rest of the pack for my liking. The Avatar is younger than us, you know?"

"I didn't," Ty Lee says, surprised no one told her.

After years of working as a spy for Ozai, she gives him information and receives nothing in return. Given, she has been feeding him false information since Azula confided in her that she is going to make an attempt at the throne. But all the same, it would be a courtesy to tell her some basics about the enemy.

"I don't know right now. I'm still figuring this out." Azula closes the book with a snap that makes Ty Lee jump and flinch. "Possibly I can join the side of the Civil War against my father."

"The side that keeps trying to kill us?" Ty Lee asks and Azula smirks as if she knows something. "What is it? What?"

"Those assassins that came after us weren't working for the Fire Nation rebels."

"Who, then?" Ty Lee whispers.

"They were working for someone we may know. _Admiral Zhao_."

Ty Lee takes a deep breath. She has clearly stumbled into a very dark chasm and she cannot see the bottom as she falls. Azula sits up on her knees and kisses Ty Lee to no response.

"I can't make out with you after being told that people in our own government are trying to have us killed," Ty Lee hisses as Azula kisses her cheek.

"Oh, relax. Before a Civil War even starts I ─ _we'll _─ be comfortably in power," Azula says.

"I, uh, love your confidence, princess," is all Ty Lee can say without lying.

"Blue is really the throne room's color," Azula says before pushing Ty Lee down by the shoulders.

* * *

><p>It is five in the morning when Ty Lee is woken, her arms wrapped around Princess Azula. She quickly moves away, not wanting to be caught clinging to her fiancée in bed with her clothes half off. Azula clumsily crawls away from her at the pounding on the door and the voice of Seiri.<p>

Azula rubs her face, ignoring Ty Lee asking quietly if she should hide under the bed, and opens the door.

"Training," Seiri says sharply, tapping a clipboard, and Azula squints at her as if she does not understand.

"The sun isn't up. Do you expect me to firebend before the sun is up?" Azula demands groggily, her words slurred. Ty Lee has never heard her so _tired_, despite their recent developments as bedfellows. Perhaps staying up all night planning how to pick off her enemies one by one is exhausting. And... the sleep deprivation Ty Lee may or may not have a part in.

"Your father insists that you practice for longer hours after what happened at the flower shop. He worries deeply about another assassination attempt," Seiri says brightly and Azula refrains from burning one of her eyebrows off as she slams the door shut to get dressed.

"I'll train with you," Ty Lee suggests cheerily as she sits up. Azula stares at her for a moment. "It'll look pretty good if we're training together. The whole, uh, madly in love thing, right?"

Azula looks her up and down. "You make a good point. Get dressed. I think it's raining."

Ty Lee finds clothes, none of which are suitable for rain but all of which are fine for training, and follows Azula into the grey morning. It is dead quiet; nobody wakes up before the sunrise in the Fire Nation unless they're a farmer. Even _coal miners _have foremen with more decency than forcing the madness of waking before the sun.

Azula takes it as a threat from Ozai and she is right to. With these little gestures, he reminds her that he still has power over her, which Azula finds to be overkill and unnecessary. It certainly leads Azula to believe that he may be suspecting her desire to seize power during such a tumultuous time.

But it will not stop her. He cannot stop her if he tries.

Azula was absolutely right with her assumption ─ it is raining. The ground is muddy and disgusting, and, so help her, if she falls and gets drenched in mud, she may do something incredibly drastic. People will _suffer _until she takes a hot bath.

Ty Lee shivers in the rain as she walks to Azula, grimacing at the mud sticking to her shoes. It feels like a bad omen that the rain is pouring so hard during an autumn drought and Ty Lee does not like it.

"Let's run and talk," Azula says, seizing her accomplice by the arm and starting to run her usual path. It is not her favorite activity; she prefers firebending stances over running like some kind of nonbender, but it is right now the best way to conceal their conversation.

"What do you want to talk about?" Ty Lee asks, blinking twice and smiling. Azula looks at her and seals her lips tightly; she may have delved into a play for the throne with the most incompetent and trusting person in the world.

"The Avatar," Azula breathes and Ty Lee knits her eyebrows together. She has no idea what the Avatar has to do with evading Ozai's wrath for the botched engagement to Zhao.

"What does the Avatar have to do with this?" Ty Lee hisses, rounding the corner with Azula and sliding across the mud. It splashes onto her clothes and stains the pink brown and black.

"He's the token. I've been playing dumb in war meetings for two weeks now and everyone wants to get the Avatar first."

"But obviously he'll join the rebels," Ty Lee murmurs, gasping for breath as they turn again. "I mean, there's a reason your father is so scared of him."

"Right now, I have the potential to take the throne. Right now, I have the potential to gain allies in the people who aren't contented with my father's reign. But I don't have an advantage," Azula says, running more slowly but glancing around for anyone who could be listening.

"Why don't we become free agents?" Ty Lee murmurs, stopping to catch her breath. Azula slides across the mud as she spins around on her heel and leans close to her fiancée.

"What do you mean?" Azula asks, shocked that Ty Lee seems to be _conniving_. Perhaps something hides beneath romance, stating the obvious and make-up.

"I mean, right now there are three factions, right? There's the people loyal to your father who we have zero chance with. There are the rebels within our nation who attacked us on the propaganda tour, who, if any of them decided to do the thing that will make them wealthy and powerful, will tell your father and expose you. I don't want to think about what he would do to you, Azula. Then there are the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe rebels, who, if they had the Avatar yet, we would know about. But they obviously are no help when you want to reign over an empire and not live in some mud hut or something. So, we really have no good options."

"Yes, I know my chances are fairly abysmal but I can't simply take the country without any support," Azula says, crossing her arms. Her father did, she knows her father did. But Azula is too smart to take such a reckless chance.

"Okay, you took a chance when you kissed me on that balcony. You're taking a bigger chance with the idea of usurping your father. I say, play on everybody's side until you choose," Ty Lee says slowly, her eyes sparkling. Azula is carefully contemplating it as rain drenches her body.

"Play on everybody's side?" Azula breathes. "That's..."

"Something you could easily do. Azula, you could manipulate strategists and kings in your sleep. Don't tell me you can't convince everyone you're on their side until you have the right moment to strike," Ty Lee says and Azula squints at her. It is a very strange morning. "You don't work for anybody; you're Princess Azula. You see what you want and take it by any means."

"I do," Azula says with a slight tilt of her head. "You want to help me?"

"I think I'm stuck helping you for better or for worse, princess," Ty Lee chirps, as if this is not such a serious conversation. "The minute you used me as a Pai Sho piece to defy your father I got roped into this. His paranoia isn't getting any better, and the Civil War isn't slowing down. The Fire Nation needs a real leader."

"It would be so much easier if I just walked into his bedroom at night and hit him with lightning, wouldn't it?" Azula sighs, although she is well aware that is not an option.

"Make everybody trust you until you're ready to dispose of them," Ty Lee says and Azula has never heard anything as appealing as that. She only wishes she had thought of the free agent idea herself.

Azula wishes she had more to say as she presses her lips against Ty Lee's. Everything is wet, her clothes are soaked through when Azula puts her hand on the small of her back. Hips touching, everything touching through drenched clothes.

"Azula," says the last voice she wanted to hear after her discussion with Ty Lee, nor during a impromptu make-out session in the rain.

'Yes, father?" Azula asks, her cheeks flushed.

"I need you to go to the Fire Sage shrine on Crescent Island and retrieve the Avatar for me. Bring your bodyguards," Ozai says, reluctant to refer to Ty Lee as anything but that.

Azula loves it when things work out without her tipping the scales of fate.


	8. Chapter 8

The trip to Crescent Island is fast and rocky with angry waves. They are taken by boat, Azula wringing her hands and Mai sharpening blades. Ty Lee sits, staring through the window at the ocean and the approaching island of the Fire Sages.

Azula crosses her arms and sighs. "What do we do once we get there?"

"We stop the Avatar from, uh, whatever it is he's doing," Mai replies dryly and Azula purses her lips. She hopes Mai is not as much of a traitor as Azula often believes. Her loyalties seem to be more with Ozai than Azula half of the time. Then again, the only reason Azula trusts Ty Lee is because she is too dumb to trick Azula. But Mai is smart.

She thinks this could be played to a better advantage than just capturing the Avatar for her father. The most important piece in this game is the Avatar, and Azula wants him. If she is going to take her play for power seriously, she needs him.

And seeing how much she likes Ty Lee's idea, she thinks that making the Avatar think she is on his side will be better than locking him in chains and handing him over to her country. Azula loves the Fire Nation and wants the Avatar imprisoned and kept from ruining her empire, _but _she also knows that there are cleverer ways to win wars than just hacking and slashing, following blind orders from the Fire Lord.

Azula intends to express her willingness to play with others than just her father. In fact, her _desire _to play with others. And this poses an intriguing opportunity.

She sits beside Ty Lee as soldiers start watching her, and she realizes she does not want to look like she is putting too much thought into this.

"When we get there, we're going to help the Avatar," Azula whispers in Ty Lee's ear before kissing her neck to cover the motion. The soldier thinks nothing of it, averting his eyes in some semblance of respect for privacy.

"Why?" Ty Lee murmurs. Azula wishes she were working with someone more intelligent at times. Lack of smarts means no surprises, but also little help with conniving.

"To play on all sides. We have him lead us to why he's here in the Avatar Temple. Tell my father what he came for and say we helped him for information. Make the Avatar think we're loyal to balance and don't trust my father. Then wherever we want to go, we go," Azula says and Ty Lee's eyes light up.

"Brilliant," Ty Lee says a little too loudly. She masks the outburst by kissing Azula and sliding her hand behind the princess's back. They cling to each other for a moment and Azula enjoys the slow heat more than she should.

"And soon we will have a country," Azula whispers, nearly into Ty Lee's lips. The hot breath of the princess sends shivers through Ty Lee, and Azula pulls away before Ty Lee notices she has.

Ty Lee closes her eyes and savors the closeness. She knows she should not, by all means. Azula is using her just as she is about to use the Avatar. But it feels nice to be with her. Falling in love with the wrong person is messy. Far, far too messy.

The ship stops outside of Crescent Island. Azula's eyes linger on Ty Lee for a moment and Ty Lee wonders if the romantic glance is real or not.

She hopes it is real. But that might be too optimistic.

* * *

><p>Azula arrives at Crescent Island and steps onto the long grey stone path up the volcanic mountain. The stairs glisten in the winter sunlight, and the building has beautiful, layered red and orange roofs and gilded pillars. A door carved into a gold and red fire shaped fixture stands in front of her.<p>

"We go alone," Princess Azula says to the soldiers behind her. "I think we can handle the Avatar and his Water Tribe friends."

One of the men opens his mouth to protest, but Azula silences him with a single glance.

Meanwhile, Aang, Katara and Sokka have just entered. "It's almost sundown. Go, go," Aang says, dashing across the floor with his feet barely touching the ground.

They walk in and see a gathering of grey-haired, bearded men in red. Katara and Sokka find their clothes and hats funny, and Aang smiles widely at them. Their dark eyes fixate on the three children standing in the nearly empty temple.

"We are the Fire Sages, guardians of the Temple of the Avatar," the man in the front says proudly, thinking only of his orders from Fire Lord Ozai that arrived an hour ago.

"Great, I am the Avatar," Aang says gladly and then he narrowly dodges fire coming at him from each man's hands.

Katara dives out of the way of more fire, and as a sharp red flame is about to hit Aang, the fire is all blocked and the room turns blue. Katara glances around, her eyes wide and sparkling with the azure glow. Knives hit one of the sages by the shirt, thrusting him backwards with force.

"One of you must be loyal to the Avatar," purrs a voice that gives Katara chills for an inexplicable reason. "Or at least loyal to me."

"Princess?" stammers the Fire Sage who first struck out at the Avatar.

"Yes. Mai, Ty Lee, control the Avatar's friends," Azula orders and her friend and fiancee obey. Katara and Sokka are too stunned to resist as the two Fire Nation girls grab onto them.

"Hi, handsome," Ty Lee whispers to Sokka and Katara rolls her eyes at his blush.

"What are you here for, Avatar?" Azula asks as the Fire Sages are confused.

"I have to see Avatar Roku?" Aang scratches his head. His feet are poised for an attack against the girl with the scary blue fire, but she just saved he and Sokka and Katara.

"That's in the sanctuary," the Fire Sage says as Azula stares at him expectantly. "Princess, the Fire Lord sent word that we are to apprehend the Avatar and not allow him to complete his task."

Azula reads their faces. None of them intend to cooperate.

"Fine. Have it your way. My offer still stands for one of you," Azula says and one sage stands up. "You, take us. None of you try to stop me or I will have you executed. Come on, Avatar."

"Aang, I don't trust her," Katara whispers and Aang frowns.

"We don't have a choice. It's getting late," Aang says quietly with his brow knit. And Aang, with a deep, calming breath, follows the strange princess into the tunnels.

Mai and Ty Lee drag Katara and Sokka along with them as the sole Fire Sage guides them. Azula examines the temple. It is incredibly beautiful, she must admit. The Fire Sages always fascinated her, but she had only seen the ones from the Capitol Temple. This volcanic island is new.

They reach a door.

"That's an impressive door," Ty Lee says as Sokka tries to break from her grip. She tightens it, one elbow resting on his gut. He inhales sharply.

"How do we open it?" Azula demands of the Fire Sage. Aang looks for an escape route in case this is a trap.

"Only a fully realized Avatar, or all of the sages at─"

The room turns blue again and the door churns open. "What was that?" Azula asks, gesturing at the room that has just opened.

He averts his eyes.

"Don't go in," Sokka says and the princess glares at him. "Are you really trusting a firebender?"

The light starts to hit the statue and Aang ignores his friends. He runs inside just as the door bursts open and the Fire Sages, along with a familiar man and Azula's soldiers she left on the ship all enter the room.

Azula spins around and conjures lightning, making Katara yelp and Sokka's eyes widen. She fires a warning shot past Zhao's ear, but he does not heed it.

"Where's the Avatar?" Zhao demands. "They tell me you helped him on his task, against your father's orders."

"They tell me you sent assassins after me and my fiancee," Azula says, cocking an eyebrow. Zhao's eyes flash.

The room glows as the solstice begins, and Mai drops Katara in the blinding light. Azula still waits as one of Azula's men grabs Mai, and Zhao lunges for Ty Lee.

Katara and Sokka are seized easily in the confusion.

Azula faints as the glow settles and Aang finds himself before Avatar Roku. Zhao catches her as Ty Lee lunges and misses, reeled back by soldiers. Azula is gone from them as the soldiers hold Katara, Mai, Ty Lee and Sokka in place, and Zhao watches Azula with a twisted glint in his eyes that makes Ty Lee sick as he holds her unconscious form.

Azula finds herself watching an image. She sees Roku and she sees the Avatar.

"I don't know what to do. I only know airbending," Aang says and Azula takes note. "I didn't... the Fire Nation has already won and I don't know what to do."

"Avatar Kyoshi sent for you to come here. The fight is not over. Balance is not forever taken away, even when wars are over. If you can master the elements, you can still restore balance and help the rebellion," Roku says and Aang stares at him.

"I don't know how," Aang sighs.

"Before you leave the Fire Nation, you need to find my great granddaughter. The Fire Nation is approaching Civil War, and now is the right time to strike. The discord that came after the Comet makes him vulnerable, but it will only last until the throne is secured by Fire Lord Ozai or whoever trie to overthrow him. You must restore balance before the Civil War ends and the Fire Nation is secured in power," Roku says and Aang is silent. "The hope never dies. Remember that."

"I don't think I can..." Aang swallows. Azula narrows her eyes. "I can't learn the elements in time."

"I know you can do it. You have done it many times before. The solstice is ending," Roku says and Azula is torn from the vision.

She wakes in the muscular arms of Zhao and she jumps away from him. Glancing around, her friends are in chains and the Avatar's companions are as well.

"I'm sure your father will be very interested in you helping the Avatar," Zhao says. "And also in the Avatar himself."

The door opens and Azula spins to the side, she breaks the chains around the Avatar's friends and punches a fist into Zhao. The room spins with the force of the Avatar, and Azula is grabbed by the wrists.

And so the escape begins.

* * *

><p>"We need to land," Aang says as his heart races with panic. "Appa is hit."<p>

They have just maneuvered out of an assault on them as they escaped. It is dark and Aang lands Appa in the countryside by cliffs and sharp rocks.

"Great, we're in the Fire Nation now," Katara sighs as Appa finishes landing. Aang is examining the singed fur and talking to the sky bison.

"He can't fly until we get him fixed," Aang snaps and Katara is startled at his frustration. "Sokka kept going on and on about how we had to infiltrate the Fire Nation, anyway. Avatar Roku said I need to find his great granddaughter. And he said we only have a limited time before the Fire Nation is secured in power; there's a Civil War coming. His great granddaughter is in the Fire Nation."

"We have to go to the North Pole," Katara says and Sokka looks at her skeptically. Her big blue eyes burn when they fall on her brother.

"I think you're more worried about learning waterbending than you are about winning the war," Sokka states, unafraid to voice this opinion. He crosses his arms.

"What war, Sokka? What war? The Fire Nation _won _the war last summer," Katara says and Appa makes a groaning noise. Aang furrows his brow. "We need to train Aang in the other elements and prepare for a _real _strike. None of this rebellion stuff you're so obsessed with."

Sokka hesitates. He came with Katara and Aang for more reasons than just protecting his sister. He _does _know that training the Avatar beats any plans the rebellion has made.

Katara slides off of Appa and sets her feet on the Fire Nation soil. It looks like the Earth Kingdom, save for different flora. She imagined it to look very different.

"We'll get to the North Pole," Sokka begrudgingly admits, rubbing his neck. "That's clearly our priority. But Aang's weird spirit dream says that we need to find someone in the Fire Nation to join us."

"Not just any someone. His great grandchild. How easy to find," Katara sighs, kicking a rock. "We need new clothes, we need medicine for Appa and we need a better plan than start asking Fire Nation citizens if they're descended from the Fire Avatar."

They would all rather be continuing to the North Pole, but while waterbending is in Katara and Aang's minds constantly, ending the war is the most important. And if hiding in the Fire Nation and figuring out how to fulfill Roku's demand must be done to end the war, they'll have to save it for later.

"I suggest starting with the officials," Aang says as he checks Appa's wound again and Sokka and Katara are both surprised he is being tactical. He tends to prefer going with the flow, as airbenders do. "If we can find a way to get in with the important people, we have better chances."

"And you said you didn't _want _to infiltrate the Fire Nation," Sokka groans, but he agrees.

They hide Appa and head out in search of new clothes and medicine for the sky bison's injuries.

* * *

><p>Azula kneels before the throne of her father. He examines her closely, waiting to choose the right words.<p>

"You aided the Avatar and helped him escape," Ozai growls and Azula nods with her eyes closed for a moment.

"I had to, father. He was in the Fire Nation to figure out how to win the war. He would've found the information from Avatar Roku whether we stopped him or not. And it seemed tactically best to help him lead us to the information we need," Azula says, most of it true. Ozai examines her closely.

"You fainted?" Ozai asks and Azula nods.

"I can tell you about the dream I shared with him. The Avatar is planning on striking during a Civil War that is supposedly coming," Azula says and Ozai's expression shifts behind the curtain of flame. "I will do everything in my power to help."

She rises and bows before leaving. Close. Very close. Azula cannot believe he sent _Zhao_ after her, but she knows Ozai's trust in her has waned. She makes it back to her room and finds Ty Lee waiting for her inside. She is damp from the bath and wrapped in a robe, staring at the book Azula recovered from the assassins.

"What was your dream?" Ty Lee asks, touching Azula's hand. "What?"

"Avatar Roku. I didn't fully understand it. But I have an interest in this Avatar outside of him as a gambit," Azula purrs, pacing. Ty Lee chews on her lower lip. "He fascinates me. And you know what he needs? A firebending teacher."

"Azula... I don't think you can do that," Ty Lee says quietly, rubbing her hands on Azula's blankets.

"You said to play for all sides. He's gone for now, but... hm. We focus on our wedding, planning it, trying on dresses, playing lovers and picking up a little information. And then I think we make our play for the little airbender boy everybody wants," Azula says with a small smile.

Ty Lee chokes. "I love your ambition."

Azula suppresses a frown. "That's the kind of thing you say when you disagree with me."

"I have to say that helping the Avatar..." Ty Lee sighs.

"Well, we've made nice steps towards securing everyone's trust in us. The Avatar sees me as aiding him and his friends. My father thinks I moved tactically to help him. We can pick and choose any side we want to fight on."

Ty Lee says nothing. And then she changes the subject with, "Azula, is any of this real?"

"Any of what?" Azula is confused. First she looks at the book as if Ty Lee is referring to a passage, so the acrobat sets it beside her, closed on the bed.

"Any of the romance. Is it all just faked to cover up us trying to take the throne?" Ty Lee asks, her eyes sparkling with a worried glitter. Azula takes a deep breath.

"I loved you once," Azula says hesitantly. She never was good at expressing feelings or articulating her vulnerabilities. "When we were kids. But you left me, and I am never going to forget that."

"Oh." Ty Lee looks genuinely dejected and Azula sighs.

"Some of it is real. I don't protest to kissing you. And you aren't as awful of a partner in overthrowing a nation as one would think," Azula says slowly and smoothly. Ty Lee grins and Azula feels relief in her chest.

"I love you." Ty Lee's cheeks are bright red and her eyes glisten with tears of emotion.

"Good." Stale and cold words.

Azula picks up the book and starts studying again.


	9. Chapter 9

For the past two weeks, Katara, Aang and Sokka have been in the Fire Nation. Appa is still recovering from the cannon wound, and so they are hidden on cliffs beside the sea, hiding in caves. It is not what Katara would call and ideal scenario, particularly since the Fire Nation is the last place Katara wants to be, much less be stuck.

Sokka is trying to get into contact with any of the rebels nearby. They are ten miles from Caldera, and the looming dormant volcano makes Katara nervous every time she looks at it. The sooner Appa recovers and they can escape and head to the North Pole, the better.

Then again, it does pose the opportunity to find Roku's granddaughter, which Aang is dead set on doing before he resumes his quest. Katara wants to say that mastering the elements is more important... but she knows that part of that is her selfish desire to learn waterbending.

Katara ducks through the small town, feeling nervous. She is clutching stolen papers she took off of the table in the restaurant she was stealing food in and supposes she is doubly a thief now. But these papers are going to make all of the difference in helping their quest.

She finds Aang and Sokka back at their camp in the cliffs and proudly displays the fancy sheets of stationary and torn red and gold envelopes.

"Look what I found," Katara declares, walking to Aang, who is rubbing the salve on Appa and laughing and talking to his companion. Sokka is still mulling over endless papers he kept from his precious rebellion. "Invitations to the fourth engagement party of the crown princess of the Fire Nation."

"You just... found them?" Sokka narrows his eyes. "I don't trust it."

"It's worth a try. We said we had to start with the higher ups, and they're all going to be at the party. We just have to sneak in and..."

"And then make it to the royal archives," Sokka says and Katara tilts her head to the side. "I was reading this papers and they talk about, if the palace was infiltrated, the archives have detailed information on everyone in the Fire Nation. If we're looking for Avatar Roku's granddaughter; that's where we start."

"You just expect us to break into the tightly guarded archives." Katara crosses her arms. She hates how good of an idea this seems to be, and is terrified of executing it. Sneaking through the Fire Nation in their stolen peasant clothes feels like the easiest and safest thing to do.

"I _do_. You want to go to this party. Everyone will be distracted and then we can just sneak in and _bam_," Sokka explains and Katara makes a hmming sound in the back of her throat. "We only need a couple of minutes to find the information. It's risky, but so is sitting around in the Fire Nation with Appa on the mend. I say we take chances and risks because defeating the Fire Nation is _way _too important to play it safe. We have _The Avatar _now, Katara."

"You didn't like Aang that much until you realized he could help you," Katara says, brushing her hair out of her face. She is not a fan of the Fire Nation style she has put it into and the way she has resigned her Water Tribe way of dress.

"It'll be fun. Sneaking into the engagement party of the princess. The princess who seems to be suspiciously on our side. She saved us on Crescent Island, and that Admiral Zhao seemed pretty worried about her."

Katara narrows her eyes. "You just think she's hot, don't you?"

"No, not that. Well, not _just _that. I think that we have a lot to gain by sneaking into this Fire Nation party," Sokka says and Katara clenches and unclenches her fists. She hates when he is right.

"Well, looks like we've got to do some more stealing. I don't think they'd let us take out palace trash in these clothes," Katara says and Appa groans as if in assent.

And so she prepares for the riskiest move of her life. Katara can only hope that it pays off. In her years as a rebel, she always felt useless. Cast aside. The girl who cannot even waterbend, and spends all of her time by lakes instead of on the front lines. Who gives speeches about hope but cannot back it up by kicking ass.

Katara thinks she has too much to prove.

* * *

><p>Azula walks out of Ozai's office shaking and trembling. Everything seemed to be going well. He believed her lies and it seemed she would win all too easily. But now she feels herself crumbling as she realizes that suffering will be her teacher.<p>

She tries to fix her clothes, tries to make her hair lie flat and curve smoothly into the topknot. But she is disheveled and panicked as she tries to make it back to her bedroom without being noticed. The only choice is to run. Azula does not _want _to make that decision. But there is no changing it. She has to make it out. She has to escape. Before it is too late.

And too late is approaching extremely quickly.

Azula creeps back to her bedroom after her conversation with her father. This is not good. Action must be taken quickly, and her thoughts are not clear enough to properly focus. She rubs her face, eyeliner and lip paint smearing onto her pale hands.

Ty Lee is in bed, half asleep. How she can sleep at night when half of the country would give their left arm to see them dead is impossible for Azula to comprehend. She slips into bed beside her fiancee and Ty Lee moves into her arms. The heat of their bodies together is enough to distract Azula, but she knows she has to focus.

"Tomorrow night at my engagement party, we have to make a break for it," Azula whispers into Ty Lee's ear.

"What do you mean? Run away? Run away to where?" Ty Lee breathes, her eyes wide. She is no longer drowsy; she is wide awake and her blood is rushing with panic.

"I don't know. But we have to get out of here. My father..." Azula murmurs and Ty Lee grabs her hand and squeezes it tightly.

"Whatever your father does, he will wind up paying for it in the end," Ty Lee whispers gently to her fiancee. She wraps Azula further into her arms, tangling their bodies beneath the sheets.

Azula surrenders to the rise and fall of her chest, engulfed in her in this dark night.

But she cannot help but be thinking of how she will escape. How she _must _escape. Staying in the palace is no longer an option. There must be an out, must be a way.

* * *

><p>The next day, Azula is prepared for the party for laborious hours. Ty Lee is beside her, trying to make it more tolerable. Most people would be annoyed by her, but Azula has grown to like it. If only because it means she has one dedicated person on her side as she grasps for power.<p>

And Ty Lee has cute lips, even when they're moving to make terrible jokes. The sexual attraction is there, and it is strong. But Azula does not know about love. Love does not come easily nor does it come free, and Azula does not think she wants to pay the price.

"It's going to be fun," Ty Lee says as she allows her hair to be tugged into an intriguing braid in the shape of a dragon. Azula gazes at her hair with interest, and she thinks for a moment of how it will look with the crown of Fire Lady.

"It's the fourth engagement party. These are getting almost absurd," Azula says coldly as her hair is slowly, painstakingly combed into a Fire Nation topknot. "I'm almost _waiting _for my victory tour to resume so I can go to the Earth Kingdom. It's disgusting. I mean, even Ba Sing Se was disgusting."

"I heard people have been trying to reclaim Ba Sing Se," Ty Lee says casually and Azula nods. She has heard so as well.

"Our best are in that city. I doubt Ba Sing Se could be regained by the Earth Kingdom if they put all of their men to it," Azula says, picking at her nails. They need to be painted again, because they are sticky and chipping.

"I'd like to see Ba Sing Se," Ty Lee says and it takes a moment for Azula to realize that Ty Lee wants to run to _there_.

But it does not matter where Azula runs.

She just needs to leave the Fire Nation before it is too late.

* * *

><p>Katara walks into the party feeling uncomfortable in her slinky red Fire Nation dress and elaborate make up. The harsh reds stand out too much against her darker skin, and she looks out of place amongst the much fairer party guests.<p>

They got in by flashing the invitations; Katara imagined it would be much more difficult. She examines the security around the room and can understand why they are not too worried about a couple of kids sneaking in. They look tough and are all armed to the teeth. And from what Katara knows of Princess Azula, and from what she saw her do on Crescent Island, she does not think Azula needs much protecting.

"Okay, Katara, I figured out where the archive is," Sokka says into her ear as Aang is making small talk with a well dressed woman's pet lemur.

"That fast?" Katara's cobalt eyes flash in shock. Sokka slowly nods and then gestures down the hallway.

"The security isn't even tight. They're all focused on the princess and her fiancée," Sokka remarks and Katara smiles faintly. "Who we should stop by and visit once we've got this Roku information."

"How about you keep _quieter _when discussing our _secret _plans," Katara snarls at her brother. "Right, Aang? Aang?"

The Avatar is missing. Fantastic. The Avatar is missing. Katara looks around frantically, her vision fuzzy and double. She does not know what to think or do as she realizes that they are in the Fire Nation, in the Fire Lord's home, and the Avatar is missing.

"You go down that hallway. I'll look around the party," Sokka says, thinking quickly. Katara can only nod and take off down the hallway.

Katara heads down the hallway and she hears an altercation. Then a blast of flame, but it's... blue. The princess? Or maybe there a lot of blue firebenders in the Fire Nation. Katara has no idea, but she hears the strangled scream of a girl around her age and so she starts running, gathering water from the vases of flowers lining the hallway to cover up the scent of dust and rot.

She finds the princess pinned to a wall by Zhao; it is the man they had the altercation with on Crescent Island. The princess moves to burn him with one alit hand, but he grabs her face and presses it against the wall.

Katara acts quickly without thinking about how much easier her life will be if the royal family of tyrants tormenting her people loses a member. She tosses the water with all of her might, hoping that for once her waterbending will obey her instead of eluding her. She splashes him and then, with a forced twist of her fist, the water freezes, leaving Zhao immobile.

"A waterbender?" the princess inquires, her cavalier, confident tone completely gone. She looks terrified and Katara could not have imagined that expression on her face after their encounter with the Fire Sages. "It doesn't matter what you bend. Help me find my fiancée. You've shown up at a pretty bad time."

The princess does not question or interrogate Katara, and Katara is not even sure she recognizes her. But she runs as quickly as she can after the hurrying princess, deeper into the labyrinth of the palace. It occurs to Katara that this could be a trap. It _would _be like the Fire Nation to do something like that.

"Wait, uh, your highness," Katara stammers, gasping for breath. Even with all of the running away from soldiers in her life, she is getting winded in the dusty and dank hall.

"No time to wait, unless you'd be like me to hand you to my father. Rebel, check. Waterbender, check. Helping the Avatar, check..." And the Fire Nation in her comes out and burns brightly.

"Okay, okay. What are we looking for?" Katara asks, finally catching her breath.

"My fiancee and I tried to run away, but someone found out. My father knows and he's tearing up the palace looking for me. You managed to keep Zhao from turning me in. Good," the princess purrs and Katara supposes she will not be thanked. "If you want my help breaking the Avatar out of the prison he is in right now, you'll help me get Ty Lee."

"I just saw Aang a minute ago," Katara says in disbelief, although she knows Aang is missing.

"He just got arrested. You didn't make a very good effort of covering up the tattoos. Now _hurry_," the princess continues sharply, swinging down a hallway. Katara tries to follow her, racing on her toes to keep up.

They make it to a wing of the palace that Azula stops in front of. She hesitates, scanning it with her golden eyes. Katara crosses her arms and studies the princess closely, unnerved and uncertain if she should have followed her. But if this is true, and Azula wants to escape the Fire Nation, then Katara, Aang and Sokka could have a great ally.

"What is it?" Katara dares to ask.

"I don't know. I thought she was here," Azula says and Katara senses humanity in her. Humanity that does not translate from a two dimensional piece of propaganda. Her face is everywhere, but it is not the face that is glistening with sweat and twisted with concern. "We can cut through this wing, through the boarded up half, then make it to where they're holding the Avatar. If Ty Lee isn't there already, she's with my father, which is the worst case scenario. Then we can cut back through the archives and out the emergency exit in that library."

"I'm on board with your plan." _Even if it kills me. It isn't as if I have any better options_, Katara thinks to herself.

"Alright, let's go. Before Zhao melts," Azula says, grabbing Katara's wrist and running through the halls. They are met with resistance of the heavily armed security guards and Katara panics as she fumbles for her water-skin.

But Azula takes them out with spinning blue fire. "Speed up, Water Tribe," Azula purrs, almost teasingly, and Katara is utterly confused. And slightly aroused.

They keep running until they barge through the door into a holding cell. A holding cell in a palace? Katara hates the Fire Nation. She really, truly does.

"Aang!" Katara exclaims as she sees him shackled in so many directions bending would be impossible. He has an optimistic glint in his eyes that she loves.

"And there you are," Azula says with a small sigh, noticing Ty Lee trying to escape the bars. Azula grabs the keys off of the hook and unlatches the prison. "I was concerned I'd have to leave you here."

"You'd leave me here?" Ty Lee teases, although she knows she will get no response. "The Avatar is here, Azula."

"I see that. And he and his friends are─"

They are interrupted by the thud of a muscular body against a stone floor and the clattering of metal. Two guards shuffle in after tossing Sokka onto his face. He looks up at Katara, Aang, Azula and Ty Lee and wonders what's happening.

"Where's the gloomy one?" Sokka asks, searching for Mai. Ty Lee makes a sad expression that Katara barely catches.

"Release him," Azula orders and the guards slowly shake their heads. "Obey me! I am your princess and you will obey me!"

"We're under orders to lock you up too." One lunges for her and he is suddenly taken down, paralyzed and afraid, by a punch from the princess's fiancée. Aang takes care of the other one with a blast of air that pounds him against the wall and knocks him unconscious.

Katara seizes the keys from Azula and unlocks Sokka.

"We're leaving through the archives. You three will come if you know what's good for you," Azula orders and Sokka glances between Katara and Aang. Neither of them protest, so they run after the princess and her girl.

They meet a good deal of resistance on their way out, but the quintet make quick work of the highly trained soldiers. Finally, they reach the archives. Aang stops as Azula and Ty Lee are dashing through stacks of books and scrolls towards the door.

"Why aren't you running?" Azula snarls, turning around. Ty Lee is still clutching her hand.

"We came here to look in these archives," Sokka explains, as Aang and Katara are speechless. "Where's the section about Avatar Roku?"

"There isn't one. They were all burned after he died," Azula says sharply.

"Census data?" Sokka presses.

"What are you looking for?" Azula demands, her eyes burning.

"We need to find Avatar Roku's great granddaughter or something," Sokka snaps back and Azula pauses.

"The Dragonbone Catacombs have more detailed records. I'll take you there if you help me escape this palace," Azula says sharply and Sokka supposes he cannot argue, as much as he wants to.

They make their escape.

* * *

><p>"Zuko, Mai," Ozai says, pacing in his office.<p>

Zuko and Mai are seated uncomfortably on an antique sofa. They know that Azula and Ty Lee escaped the palace with the Avatar. They also know that this cannot be good news.

"I want you to go with Admiral Zhao to reclaim my daughter."

Mai's eyes light. Zuko does not know what to think.


End file.
